Error in the Code
by AC75
Summary: A Bloodborne players falls into a death game of another game, he must then find a way to escape this hell and be free of the penalty of death. But then again... Wasn't Bloodborne already hell? First Fanfic, please leave any constructive criticism, hope you enjoy. Note: October 11, 2016 Entire story was reformatted
1. Chapter 1

**Error in the Code**

Hunters... Agile fighters armed with a trick weapon, a transforming melee weapon in one hand, and a firearm in the left. They were a stranger to shields, instead using mobility to their advantage to avoid any incoming attacks. These Hunters were recruited by Gehrman or the Church itself.

These Hunters belonged to the city of Yharnam, but the existence of hunters aren't exclusive to Yharnam itself and are instead, existent throughout the world.

Yharnam is a towering, labyrinthine Gothic city, home to the Healing Church, Blood Ministrations and your worst possible nightmare.

' _Yeah, that's right, this is only a soft core copy of Dark Souls, a preparatory school if you would.'_ He thought to himself, it could be said that this game was a preparatory school compared to Dark Souls since it wasn't as hardcore as its older cousin.

' _It's bad enough that they released Dark Souls on the Console and PC.'_ He thought. _'Now they release its cousin in VR Gear? I prefer releasing my anger on the buttons rather than beating the crap out of a helmet with an LED Screen in it...'_ He thought, reminiscing on the good times. _'Screw it, let's do this.'_

"Link start." He instructed, trying not to scream just so the headset could hear him.

It's all fun and games until things hit fan...

He entered the menu that had the expected background image in it, the menu displayed two options:

Play online

Play offline

 _'Online should be interesting.'_ He thought to himself, with that, he picked the worst possible decision in his entire life. But it can't be that bad, right? Let's hope it isn't.

* * *

 _'Ok, I'm in the Hunter's Dream with the creepy doll just ahead, let's proceed with the actual game.'_ He then turned to the tombstone that teleported you to the starting area (it looks like a tombstone) and there, it listed the following areas:

1st Floor Sickroom

Hunter's Dream

Central Yharnam

 _'I know what I'm picking.'_ Central Yharnam was then selected and little did he know... That things were about to get interesting.

* * *

There, in front of him, stood the Mist Door. A notorious piece of architecture to any and all players of the Souls series. _'If the guides are correct, this should lead me to the Cleric Beast...'_ He thought.

 _'Even though I spoil myself by reading posts and watching guides, who says things can't get interesting?'_ He thought to himself. But things were unexpected the moment he pressed the button to traverse the fog. He found himself in a completely different world, one with weird looking walls and monsters.

"The hell?" He muttered, he then realized he was able to speak. "I didn't think one of the features of a headset allowed you to talk through an in-game mouth..." He thought out loud.

 _'But that's not the main problem right now.'_ He then turned to look at his surroundings, which looked entirely different, the setting wasn't like that of Bloodborne's, instead, it was brighter and the atmosphere didn't seem gloomy or eerie. He was in a town that was under the morning sun, something that wasn't in the world of Bloodborne, or at least not till one ending.

 _'Maybe I should logout and see if the game will reset after that...'_ He thought to himself, he pulled out the menu, which looked completely different from the original menu, it had a color combination of white and orange. The menu options from the original game were still there, but there were new options that weren't supposed to be there as well.

"No time to explore, have to fix this before something worse happens." He thought out loud, and as if on cue, the logout option was nowhere to be found.

"..." He stared at the blank option for a while, contemplating on whether he should believe his eyes or not.

"m8..." [1]

"Maybe it was the vitamins I took..." He said whilst mashing and jamming his finger into the blank option, hoping something miraculous would happen.

"Definitely not the vitamins then..." He looked around for anyone who could possibly give him an explanation as to where he was and what game he was placed in. Just as he was about to take a step forward, a loud bell rang across the area and a white light glowed around him.

 _'The hell..?'_ He thought, but just as he finished his thought, he was teleported to a plaza with other human character models appearing in the same light that emanated from beneath his feet.

 _'Are these... Other players?'_ Looking around, he saw many others appearing before him, his mind was left puzzled. Trying to figure out why he was brought here, he looked up and saw a sign floating in the sky that said "Warning", followed by "System Announcement".

The red sign then multiplied and spread across the plaza, creating a dome around him and the other players. He then noticed a red liquid flowing out between the lines of the signs, it oozed out of different areas shortly. The red liquid then formed a giant entity with a robe and a cloak on.

"A GM?"

"Why is he hiding his face?" A few people from the crowd began questioning his appearance in the plaza. The entity then gazed at the players and started his announcement.

"Attention, players." He said, in a voice that seemed to have been modified, as if hiding his identity from the players, _'It would only make sense to change your voice if you were gonna hide your identity from the players in the first place.'_ He then continued his announcement.

"Welcome to my world... My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Everyone became surprised, some gasping and others dropping their jaws.

"I am the one and only person who can control this world."

"That really him?"

"He must've invested a lot of time into this." The crowd of players broke into chatters, some doubting and asking if he really was who he claims to be, others coming into conclusions of his work into the game.

"I'm sure that you've all already noticed that the logout button in the menu has been removed." He said, in a surprisingly calm voice that held no intimidation to it.

"However, this is by no means a mistake." He continued.

"I repeat. It is not a mistake, but a feature of the true Sword Art Online."

 _'So that's the name of the game I'm in, huh?'_ The Hunter thought, the answers he was looking for started coming towards him.

"You are all unable to log out of SAO, and nobody in the real world can remove the NerveGear or interrupt it's operation." He explained, the announcement started to sound like it had an ulterior motive to it. It was getting shadier and shadier with each sentence coming from the GM.

"Should it be attempted, a powerful burst of microwave radiation emitted from a transmitter in the NerveGear will destroy your brain, thus ending your life." Okay, maybe he wasn't looking for _that_ answer.

"What's he saying?"

"I'm sure it's an act to get us excited."

 _'What's so exciting about the possibility of dying in real life just by dying in-game?'_ He thought.

"Come on, enough already."

"Let's go." Two players tried to leave, but ran into an invisible wall in the process.

"Unfortunately, it's certainly possible that a player's family or friends would ignore this warning and attempt to forcibly remove the NerveGear

As proof of this, 213 players have retired from both this world and the real one." He stated, explaining the outcome of removing the gear.

"As you can see, news of my warning and the numerous victims are being spread worldwide." Windows of the current news reports popped up around him with headlines stating that players have died in an incident.

"Thus, it should be safe to say that the danger of removal attempts has become minimal."

 _'Is that supposed to make us feel any better?'_ The Hunter thought, trying to figure out if he was trying to comfort the players or not.

"I hope you will all be at ease and focus on completing the game."

"..."q

"But I'd like you all to keep this in mind. From this point on, all methods of revival in the game will no longer function"

 _'What?'_

"If your HP hits zero, your avatar will perish for eternity, and at that moment... The NerveGear will destroy your brain."

 _'What?'_

"There is only one condition you must meet to be free: the completion of this game."

 _'WHAT?'_ He screamed internally, refusing to believe the words coming from his mouth.

 _'So I'm gonna be stuck here? In a game I'm not supposed to be in?!'_

"You are all currently on the first floor, the lowest point in Aincrad."

 _'Starting area? As long as this game doesn't work like Dark Souls or Bloodborne, the enemies along the way shouldn't be that hard...'_ He thought, he hoped it would be that way.

"If you conquer a floor's dungeon and defeat the floor boss, you may continue up to the next one." He said, explaining the mechanics of the game.

"Assuming you manage to defeat the final boss on the 100th floor, the game will be considered cleared."

 _'Reach 100 and we're free? Simple enough.'_ He knew it was easier said than done, but the conditions were simple. Much like any other game, the only way to complete it was to end it.

"And lastly, I've prepared a present for all of you in your item storages. Take a look." With that, everyone pulled out their inventory to check on the "present" he prepared for them.

 _'Guess I should do the same...'_ With that, he pulled up the menu, which was now changed into the SAO layout. He tapped the inventory button and saw a new item inside.

"A mirror?" He muttered, he glanced at the object and white light then emanated from around him. "The hell..?" The light then disappeared and he looked at the mirror once again, no changes have been made to his appearance.

He looked around at the players who did the same and noticed their looks changed entirely.

"You're a guy?"

"You lied about being 17?"

 _'Guess it changed their looks to that of their real life appearance.'_ He thought, this was most likely true judging from what he saw. Some supposed-to-be female avatars transformed into dudes who could induce trauma into those who fell for the "Female avatar means female person" trick.

"The game must have conflicted with the current program SAO has running." He thought out loud, theorizing an explanation as to why he remained the same.

"Right now, you're probably all wondering, "Why... Why would I, Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do such a thing?" He was snapped out of his current state by a voice that came from the entity in front of him.

"I have already achieved my goal." He continued.

"I created the world of SAO solely for my personal enjoyment... And now, the preparations are complete."

 _'_ _ **This**_ _is your personal enjoyment?'_ He thought, disbelief building up inside of him.

"This concludes the tutorial for the official launch of Sword Art Online."

' _Some tutorial that was...'_ He thought, to him, this was more like a death sentence employed to the innocent.

"Players, I wish you the best of luck." He finished his speech. And with that, steam then emerge from around his body, it was as if he was melting into the air, he then disappeared from the players' sights and the dome was removed.

The players continued to stare at the empty space he once occupied, expressions of disbelief apparent in their faces.

"No...no!" A girl cried out. As if on cue, the crowd erupted into shouting, some hoping it was just an act, others wanting to log out and carry on with their lives. But he knew otherwise... This was no joke, the logout button was removed and their was only one way to escape this hell. He agreed on a thought that entered his mind.

 _'Shit just hit the fan...'_

 _AN: Hey guys, I'm currently new to all this Fanfiction publishing thing, and I'm trying to figure things out (I don't even know how to look at reviews) but I've seen the reviews and will reply to them soon._


	2. Chapter 2

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 2**

 _A month has passed since the Declaration of Independence... From the revival methods of the game, and the launch of the game itself. Over 2000 people have died, but no one has cleared the 1st floor. Not. A. Single. One._

He sighed in annoyance over his thoughts since he couldn't really do anything about it.

 _'If they ran this game DS or BB style, they wouldn't die so much...'_ He thought. As arrogant as it sounded, it had some truth to it. Neither of those games encourage you to charge head-on at the enemies you see.

A boss conference was to be held today, tactics or strategies and information on the boss would be discussed there. He walked around town, deciding if he should try to take on the levels solo or join a group.

 _'Being in a group wouldn't hurt, it would help if the bosses were difficult to deal with.'_ He thought, trying to come to a final decision. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw players gathering around a fountain, some in pairs, others in groups. He glanced around the area and noticed a player leaning on a wall with no one else around him.

 _'Solo player? Would've expected everyone to group up with others to help each other out.'_ In his mind, he thought going solo would be suicide, especially since this VRMMO falls under the category of "Death Game".

 _'Well... I'm one to talk, huh? Hunters go solo most of the time.'_

He took his eyes off the boy, who looked to be in deep thought and decided to gather around the fountain with the other players. He decided to follow the other players and join in on the fun.

 _'Well, time to blend in.'_ He let out a sigh and walked towards the fountain. He saw the solo player walking towards the same area out of the corner of his eye.

 _'Oh, joy, things are about to get interesting.'_

* * *

They entered the boss room, which was dark and dimly lit. He saw the silhouette of the boss up ahead. The room then lit up bright enough to reveal the physical appearances of the boss and its equipment. The name and its health bars appeared in the HUD.

 _'So this is what an SAO boss looks like... Looks like an oversized dog, though.'_ He remarked, the boss didn't look like much, it looked simple. Not many weapons around it, besides the ones mentioned in the conference.

 _'Time to evaluate its difficulty.'_ Three Kobold Sentinels spawned in front of the boss. And the four enemies charged at the group.

"Commence attack!" Diabel shouted, and on cue, the entire group charged towards them. He ended up going solo since he didn't go to the conference with anyone else, he wasn't invited either. His only job was to keep the sentinels off the other parties so that they could attack the boss.

He stayed back and watched two players attacking the sentinels.

"Switch!" He shouted, after taking a swing to deflect the sentinel's pole axe.

 _'So that's how this works. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.'_ A sentinel then charged up him, it's mace started glowing. He deflected the attack, causing the sentinel to stagger.

 _'Now's my chance.'_

With the opening created, he ran up towards the sentinel and jumped up, bringing his axe down on the enemy. It was, apparently, enough to kill the thing. It exploded into fragments, signaling its demise.

"Guess I don't need a sword skill to do this..." He muttered to no one particular. He glanced at the ongoing battle, everyone was busy commencing a light show, with all their glowing weapons. He turned back to his own business and continued fending off the sentinels.

* * *

A roar was heard from behind him. As turned his head to see what was happening, the boss tossed its weapons away, leaving its hands up in the air. As if it was praising the sun.

 _'No sun around here bud, just trippy colors on the wall.'_ He thought, the boss then grabbed the handle from its waist and pulled out a weapon.

"Stand back. I'll go!" Diabel ordered, charging up to the front with his sword glowing.

"That's... That's not a curved sword..." He thought out loud. His mind was left with question marks all over his brain, wondering how the other players didn't notice this detail.

 _"When the last of his four health bars becomes red, he switches to a curved sword called a Talwar." Diabel announced, while reading the guidebook._

 _"His attack patterns also change."_

The words from the conference echoed in his head. The information on the guidebook was incorrect, the attack patterns WILL change now, but not the ones they expect.

 _'The information must have been from the beta.'_ He theorized. Knowing full well that the weapon it was holding was not a curved sword, he didn't know what to do. Maybe a person would recognize this and warn them about it.

On the other side of the area, a boy stared in horror when he realized that it wasn't a curved sword as well.

 _'That's not a Talwar, that's a Nodachi!'_ He thought.

"Stop!" He finished off a sentinel before shouting. Kibaou and the Hunter heard him, but no one else did, they were distracted by the boss.

"Jump back as far as you can!" By the time he shouted it, it was already too late. The boss jumped between pillars, confusing Diabel, Illfang then lunged at him, landing in front of him, throwing him backwards, it was then followed up with a swing of its weapon, leaving a huge red mark on Diabel.

"Agh!" He screamed in pain, he landed on the ground, his HP Bar constantly decreasing.

"Diabel-han!" Kibaou called out, before they could run to him, the boss jumped and landed in front of them, roaring in anger. Kirito ran to him, placing his arm around Diabel. The Hunter wasn't able to make out what they were saying, he focused his attention to the boss.

The different groups were trying to assault it, but things were only going downhill with their attack. Their morale began to falter as they realized their assault wasn't working.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Diabel's avatar shattered, he rejected the healing potion offered to him.

 _'Why? Why would you do that?'_ He asked himself, it would only make sense to accept one when it was offered, but instead, he rejected it. The Hunter clicked his tongue in annoyance.

 _'Without a leader, we're sure to lose morale and falter. Best case scenario would be retreating without any casualties, in the worst case, we'll all die.'_ They were all depending on their leader, depending on what they heard, but not what they saw.

 _'Why didn't they notice? When Illfang pulled out his weapon, common sense was written all over it...'_ He pondered on why they couldn't notice the difference, but there were other matters to deal with.

Kirito stood up, looking determined. His party member slid next to him, they exchanged a few words before running towards the boss.

"Our strategy's the same as with the Sentinels!" He said out loud, they charged past him with their weapons ready. The boss drew its attention to the duo running towards it, it then readied its weapon, glowing and waiting for the time to strike. Kirito responded in kind, his sword glowing.

' _Oh boy.'_ When both weapons made contact, the force was enough to stagger both of them.

"Switch!" Asuna ran up, her rapier glowing. The boss's eyes then pulsed.

"Asuna!" Kirito called out, warning her, she noticed this and ducked, the weapon barely missing. The attack burned her cape, revealing her hair and her face. But that didn't stop her from striking the boss. She hold her rapier with both of her hands, ramming them into the boss, enough to throw it off balance.

The boy stared in wonder, seeing her without her hood, he was in his own wonderland.

 _'Pervert.'_ The Hunter thought.

He was released from his thoughts when the boss let out a low growl.

"He's coming back!"

He deflected a swing, creating an opening, using the same strategy with the sentinels. This routine carried on until the boss pulled a feint, it faked a swing from above. Kirito swung his sword upward, thinking it would deflect from there, but then it brought its katana down low and swung upwards, successfully hitting Kirito in the process.

It threw him off, he then hit Asuna along the way, bringing both of them down on the ground, vulnerable and open for attack. Asuna struggled to get up and glanced at his HP Bar, which went down halfway.

 _'Time to contribute.'_ He then charged towards the boss.

Illfang towered over them, it's katana in the air, ready to strike down. Asuna raised her rapier in an attempt to block it. A third party then deflected his attack, the Hunter put all of his strength into the swing, staggering Illfang. He then recovered and bent down, one hand on the ground, stopping him from sliding backwards. Other players charged in to attack.

"We'll hold him off until you recover!" Agil said, following behind his party.

"You're..." Kirito wasn't able to finish his sentence since Agil moved in as well. They were able to land consecutive blows on the target, but the Hunter took a step back.

 _'If this keeps up, he might pull something.'_ He thought.

He thought right, the boss pulled an AoE attack on the assailants. It then jumped up with its weapon glowing. Kirito stood up with a skill ready.

"Watch out!"

Illfang was closing in on them, ready to strike.

"Reach it!" He exclaimed, lunging at the boss with his sword glowing.

It hit the boss, changing its course. It made a rough landing as it came tumbling down on the ground. Kirito broke the fall by rolling on the ground.

"Asuna!" He called out.

"One last hit! Help me out!"

"Roger!" She followed, matching his pace beside him. They both let out battle screams as they alternately struck the boss with consecutive attacks. Kirito dug his sword deep and ripped the Illfang in half. The boss brightly glowed a color of white, before shattering into pieces.

Silence took over the people watching with their very eyes. Everyone stared at the air the boss formerly occupied.

"W-we did it!" The silence was broken when someone cheered. The group followed, erupting into cheers and shouts of victory.

"We did it..." He said to himself, he let out a sigh of relief. It was over, they cleared the first level. He dropped on the ground, sitting down and leaning on a column. This victory was temporary, but worth cherishing.

"Why?!" And of course, there's _that_ guy.

"Why... Why'd you let Diabel-han die?" Everyone turned their gaze towards him.

"Let him die?" Kirito replied.

"Exactly!" He exclaimed.

"You knew the boss's moves!" He continued.

"If you shared what you knew beforehand, he wouldn't have died!"

The players began muttering to each other.

"He must have been a beta tester!" One of them exclaimed.

 _'Here we go again, blaming the beta testers.'_ He thought, releasing a tired sigh.

"That's how he knew the boss's attack patterns!" He continued his rant.

"He knew, but didn't tell us! And he's not the only one, is he?"

"Admit it, beta testers."

Everyone looked at one another, some accusingly glaring at each other.

"Hey, you..." Agil's sentence was interrupted by someone laughing. Everyone turned to look at Kirito, as if he went mental. He somewhat did, but not completely.

"A beta tester?" He asked rhetorically.

"Don't put me in the same category as those newbies." An arrogant tone apparent in his voice.

"W-what?!"

"The majority of SAO's one thousand beta testers..." He paused, while walking towards him.

"...were amateurs who didn't even know how to level." He continued.

"Even you guys are better than them."

"But I, for one, am different." He claimed.

"During the beta test, I reached floors that nobody else could. I knew the boss's attack patterns because I've fought plenty of katana-wielding monsters on floors far above this one." He continued his claims.

"I know a lot more than that too... More than any information broker." Everyone stared at him in a mix of surprise and disbelief.

"W-what? That's... Forget about being a beta tester!" Kibaou exclaimed, trying to find the right words.

"You're a cheater! A cheater!"

"Yeah, a cheater!" The crowd fell into agreement, and started shouting at him, saying he was a cheater. Only two people stayed quiet throughout this fight, Asuna and Agil.

"Both a beta tester and a cheater... So you're a beater!"

 _'...seriously? A "beater?"'_ The Hunter thought. Was that the best they could come up with?

Asuna glanced at Kirito, waiting to see how he'd react. He had a smug look on his face.

"Beater... That's not a bad name." He replied.

 _'Mate... You serious?'_ He thought. He mentally facepalmed at this, as serious as this was, it sounded weird, even stupid, in his opinion.

They gasped in surprise at his response, which seemed to be agreeing with them.

"That's right, I'm a beater." He pulled out his inventory and equipped his cloak.

"From now on, don't think of me as a mere beta tester." The cloak appeared, equipped on him. He smirked before turning around and walking off to the exit. Everyone staring at him as he walked off.

The Hunter stood up from where he was seated and followed. He let out a sigh before walking past the crowd.

"Honestly, you could tell it wasn't a curved sword to begin with." He said, walking past them. They turned to look at him, he was different from everyone else, no SAO player would be wearing the Yharnam Hunter Armor.

As he was nearing the exit, he saw Asuna catch up to Kirito.

"Wait." She called out.

"During the battle, you said my name, right?" She asked.

"Sorry for addressing you informally." He apologized.

"Or did I pronounce it wrong?" He asked.

"How did you know?" She replied with a question.

"You can see an HP Bar that isn't your own around here, right?" He replied.

"Isn't something written next to it?" He asked, it was a rhetorical question.

"Ki-ri-to..." She tried pronouncing his name.

"Kirito? Is that your name?" She asked.

"Yeah."

She glanced at him for a second before giggling, a smile evident on her face.

"Wow, it's been there all the time huh?" Was she that oblivious?

Kirito only looked at her with his back facing her.

"You became strong." He said.

"So if someone trustworthy ever invites you to their guild, don't turn them down."

"There's a definite limit for solo players, after all." He said, finishing his statement.

"Then what about you?" She asked, but he didn't reply and walked away.

The Hunter passed by her, his eyes gazing at her. Their eyes met for a second, he stopped for a second, thinking if he should say something. But she beat him to it.

"Who are you? You look different from the others." She asked.

"I'm just another player, but if you want a name, I guess I could give you one." He turned around to face her.

"Name's Ryuu." He said, it was a plain username he picked out, names were like aesthetics after all, they don't change much.

"You're Asuna, correct?" He asked.

"How'd you know?" She asked, slightly surprised that he knew her name.

"He called you out during the battle, heard it." He said.

"Oh... I see." She replied.

"I'm headed off, if you need anything, just send me a message." He turned around and walked off.

 _'Strange... He doesn't look like an SAO player.'_ She thought, but she shrugged it off as just a feeling.

This was only the beginning.

AN:

Hey guys, sorry it took a long time to update, I've been reading more than writing. I've received a couple of reviews and I will respond to them here, or in PM. I focused a lot on Kirito and Asuna's perspective a lot here, but I will focus more on the Hunter, I am looking for suggestions of what you want to see the Hunter do in the next chapter, since episode 3 focuses on Kirito a lot.


	3. AN (Update)

**Authors Notes:**

Hey guys, author here.

So currently, regarding my Fanfic, I am having some trouble thinking of what to do next, writers block and stuff. I'm also having some trouble being able to update the story, I apologize for the long intervals when it comes to updates and all. However, that doesn't mean I'm stopping the story or putting it on hiatus, I'm still continuing it.

I also received reviews and some of them had suggestions it, I would like to thank you guys for reviewing my story, it helps out with ideas and all. There is one person who has reviewed the story but doesn't have an account in , so I will respond to a review here.

Student

One of your questions here was about Ryuu not using his gun. To answer that, he hides his pistol to avoid any unwanted attention from the players of SAO.

And also, yes, I was planning on adding the Bloodborne elements on the next chapter, sorry if this took some time for it to kick in.

And you asked (I believe) if he could go back to the Hunters Dream? I was also planning that on the future chapters, won't be specifying which one since it will be a giveaway.

And regarding the parts and Ryuu's personality, (as a Hunter) for the sake of Bloodborne, I will add some dark parts, as well as some gore (guess that's what Bloodborne's about) and I won't forget the horror as well!

If you have any suggestion for any of the themes you recommended, you can leave them in a review, that being said, I am taking in suggestions for the next chapters, so if any of you guys have idea, please don't hesitate or be shy, I will take the time to read and think about your suggestions, maybe even mix them up.

Regarding your story suggestions as well, Student, I have not watched RWBY and Fate Stay Night (Is that what it is?) so I won't be able to understand them, apologies.

Anyways, I apologize again for the delay and I will work on the next chapters soon!

\- Author who talks to himself.


	4. Chapter 3

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 3**

Roaming solo and clearing dungeons wasn't a bad idea if you knew how to take care of yourself. That being said, he was roaming around one of the floors, trying to find the boss room. He decided he'd run things his way, and that is, the Bloodborne way, going solo and praying he doesn't die in the process.

 _'Since I'm not using the same gear they do for their VRMMO... Maybe there's no risk of my life disappearing...'_ He thought, recalling the events of the past.

 _"From this point on, all methods of revival in the game will no longer function."_

 _"If your HP hits zero, your avatar will perish for eternity, and at that moment... The NerveGear will destroy your brain."_

Other recollections of the past entered his mind.

 _"Should it be attempted, a powerful burst of microwave radiation emitted from a transmitter in the NerveGear will destroy your brain, thus ending your life."_

"NerveGear, huh? Must be what they're using." He thought out loud as he advanced through Central Yharnam. His theories were cut short when he spotted people—no, beasts, in the area. People infected by the old blood, where the scourge of the beasts emanated from.

 _'If I fight them and continue along the path... Maybe actually I'll run into the first boss.'_ He thought, approaching the Huntsmen, he walked towards them, carefully trying not to pull their aggro. When he was near enough, he raised his axe up and brought it down on the unsuspecting Huntsman.

The others then turned around to see the commotion, noticing the racket he was causing at the back. After meeting his gaze, they slowly approached him, weapons ready.

He removed his axe from the corpse, blood squirting out of the body, and readied himself for combat. Their sluggish movements gave him enough time to prepare himself for the next attack.

"Let's make this quick, I have an appointment." He said, walking towards them.

One Huntsman tried to hit him, swinging the sickle, he rolled out of the way and followed up with a swing of his own, hitting the Huntsman and momentarily staggering it. He was about to pull another attack until one of them charged towards him, he transformed his weapon and pulled a wide attack, hitting both of them in the process and knocking them down the ground..

 _'Three down, one more to go.'_

He turned to look at the last one, it had a wooden shield and a torch in its hands.

 _'Their defense breaks after one hit.'_

He started running towards the beast, pulling a light swing the moment he was close enough, he then followed up with another hit, enough to kill it.

He continued along the path in the area, killing beasts that got in the way. He reached an area that had a fountain placed in it, behind it were three carrion crows, these creatures drag themselves across the ground, making them look crippled. They weren't the only beings in the area, he looked around and spotted a brick troll, standing idly.

 _'That brick troll is more of a threat than these guys.'_

He walked towards the troll, trying not to get detected. He stopped right behind the troll, he then released a charge attack, the axe landing on the troll's back, he followed up with another downward swing, ensuring its death before moving away. He walked towards the stairs leading up to another set of stairs, he was met with a two Huntsmen and a hunting dog.

The hunting dog charged towards him, barking along the way, alerting the Huntsmen. It then lunged towards him with its jaws open, ready to bite, it's attempted assault was met with an attack from the side, throwing the dog into the wall. The two Huntsmen had just arrived from their walk in the park.

One of them initiated their assault, trying to hit the Hunter with its cutlass, he sidestepped and struck the beast with his axe, another attack was close by when the other one tried to thrust the pitchfork at the Hunter, he rolled out and landed a hit, he continued switching between targets until both targets died. He then walked up the stairs that led him to a bridge.

"I recognize this place..." He muttered, knowing where it would lead him if he continued along this path. Being a player of a game like this, he was prepared for the worst.

 _'Always know what you sign up for.'_ He thought, this was, no doubt, true. Running into something unprepared can only be disaster in a game that runs like Bloodborne or its predecessors.

He continued along the bridge, he stopped his approach when he spotted a pair of scourge beasts, beings that looked like werewolves. He pulled out a Molotov cocktail he picked up from the Huntsmen and threw to one of them.

The beast recoiled in response to the sudden contact of fire on its fur. It turned to look for the point of origin and saw the Hunter, standing and waiting for them to attack.

The beast then rushed towards him, with a swipe of its claws, he jumped backwards, barely dodging the attack. With the beast in reach, he performed an uppercut with his axe, staggering the beast backwards, howling in pain. The second beast tried to aid its ally by flanking him from the side, it then brought both of its hands up and performed a double slash. The claws made contact with the Hunter's body, blood spilling out of him.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, taking a back-step to get to a safe distance. He pulled out a blood vial and consumed it to heal his missing health. One of beasts took the opportunity to hit him, dashing forward and ready to strike. He countered this move with a jump attack, the axe coming down on its head. He pulled the axe out of its head and raised his axe up, bringing it down again on the beast, finishing it off in the process.

He quickly removed his axe from the beast, he rushed towards the second one, performing a dash attack, which successfully struck the beast. He followed up by transforming his axe and charged his attack, a light pulsed momentarily from his weapon before he released it. Knocking the beast back in the process, blood spilling out of the corpse.

He lowered his weapon, leaning his weight on it. His clothes and weapon were stained with blood. Taking a moment to recover, he continued along the bridge and reached an archway, and ahead of it was a building entrance, and the location of a lamp.

He continued forward, passing the archway and headed towards the building. He stopped when a gigantic beast climbed up from the other side and jumped, landing on the ground ahead of him. This enormous creature had disfigured horns, it then let out a low sounding scream.

"It's been a while..." He said. He stood in front of the Cleric Beast, weapons ready.

This death game has only just begun.

 **AN:**

Hey guys, sorry it took so long to update my story, this chapter is where the Bloodborne elements come in, as you can see.

I've received another review with suggestions for the future chapters. Some fics have been recommended to me as well, and I will take the time to read them, it will help with the development of new chapters. Thank you so much for reviewing, it helps out with ideas and story development.

I'm open for suggestions if any of you guys want to see something happen in the next chapter, if you do have a suggestion, you can send it through Private Messaging or through a review! Thanks again!

-Author who talks to himself


	5. Chapter 4

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 4**

Fighting a boss in a Dark Souls driven game isn't exactly an easy one from time to time, even if it was considered a preparatory school. The Cleric Beast was a beginner boss and an optional boss, but that didn't mean it wasn't hard.

The fight consisted of taking openings and dodging from side to side. This routine continued for some time.

Just as the beast was about to bring its hand down on the ground, he rolled out of the way. It's hand appeared to be stuck on the ground.

 _'Nows my chance.'_ He ran towards the hand, planning to land a few hits on it while it was vulnerable.

Big mistake.

The moment he was about to take a swing at it, it pulled its hand out with force, hitting him and knocking him back. He quickly recovered from the impact and charged at the beast, hitting its arm and using the recovery system while it lasted, recovering the health he lost. After his assault, he moved away to avoid any incoming attacks the beast might have in store.

He stopped and took a moment to observe the beast, it's health was down to 70%. He broke into a charge, running towards it, it raised its left arm, ready to plunge it down into the ground. Just before its hand made contact with the ground, he rolled forward, dodging its attack. He was put in between its arm and its legs, he turned around and hacked away at its vulnerable arm, he charged his weapon on his third attack, a small light pulsed before he brought it down on the arm. When the blade of the axe penetrated through its skin, blood spewed all over the ground and its surroundings, soaking his armor. The beast let out screams of pain.

He took a few steps back as the Cleric Beast staggered backwards, trying to recover from the brutal attack. The second phase triggered, it then released a red aura around it, signaling that it's limbs were healing.

After healing its arm, it started approaching the hunter, letting out a high-pitched scream. He pulled out his pistol and aimed for its head, pulling the trigger once, the bullet made contact with it's head, but it only flinched in response.

 _'One more...'_ He thought, he then went for another round. Aiming his pistol and pulling the trigger. The second bullet was enough to bring the beast's head down, an opening presented itself in front of the hunter.

He walked towards it and performed a visceral attack, more blood spilling from the beast. It's health significantly reduced, it staggered backwards again, struggling to regain its composure. It let out a blood-curdling scream, the Hunter took advantage of its state and ran towards it.

 _'Time to finish this.'_ The moment he was in reach, he released a series of attacks. Swinging his axe left to right, transforming his weapon and landing any combination of attacks he could pull.

He momentarily stopped to recover the stamina he lost, his breathing was heavy. While he was recovering, the beast raised its left arm, ready to strike, he charged his attack with the stamina he recovered and released it before the beast could pull off its attack. It fell to the ground and exploded, blood coming out in the process. As if the game couldn't get any bloodier.

" **Prey Slaughtered."** Appeared in his HUD, marking the end of the boss fight. He looked ahead and spotted a lamp on the ground. He made his way to the lamp and touched it, lighting up in the process.

 _'Didn't think I'd be able to get back...'_ He thought. He then touched it again, a menu appearing in front of him, a familiar list of levels were listed in the menu.

He selected the Hunters Dream and was teleported there.

* * *

He was greeted by a familiar area that housed a workshop, a Hunter, and a doll. He approached the doll, deciding to level himself up. He gained more blood echoes from SAO, and as he switched places, the currency converts from one to the other.

With this glitch apparent, it could make things easier in Bloodborne and SAO itself, the amount of blood echoes you gain from killing enemies in Bloodborne can be considered a lot in SAO. The difficulty may play a role in the amount you obtain from killing an enemy in Bloodborne as well.

 _'I can only imagine it in New Game+.'_ He thought, and it was true, getting a couple thousand for killing a simple enemy? You'd end up rich with that kind of system in SAO.

He finished leveling up and approached the Headstone, a tomb that teleported you to your desired destination. He noticed something new in the list.

Aincrad had appeared in the list of locations as well, the sight of the area reminded him of the past.

 _"You are all unable to log out of SAO and nobody in the real world can remove the NerveGear or interrupt it's operation."_

He exited the teleportation menu and brought up the main menu, he looked around and spotted the logout button. His eyes widened in shock as he realized he could escape from this death game.

He was about to press the button, but right before his finger was able to make contact, a realization entered his mind.

 _'I'm most likely in a hospital right now... Logging out wouldn't do much good.'_ He thought.

 _'Will I be able to come back?'_

"Bloodborne and SAO have been mixed up, the bosses now exist in its world and someone _has_ to kill them... They know nothing about the beings of Bloodborne, it could lead to the death of thousands..." The thought out loud, he dismissed the main menu and returned to the headstone.

 _'Someone has to do it.'_ He thought. It was unlike him to think like this. In the real world, he was a loner who hung out with no one but himself, he was that solitary guy at the back of the classroom, minding his own business. Any person given a chance to escape this hell would take it and save themselves, possibly disregarding others.

He didn't wanna be a guy who ran away from the death game imposed on 10,000 players, only to look back in regret and think "If only I didn't run away..."

No, he was gonna help the players of SAO and clear all the 100 floors. He picked Aincrad as his destination, the teleportation initiated and he appeared in the world of Aincrad once again.

With the hopes of having no regrets.

 **AN:**

Sorry this took so long to update, I apologize, it's been about a week since I've updated it.

Clarification:

The reason I decided that he doesn't logout is that, if he wakes up in a hospital with his current position, it will only bring him to questioning by the police (or any organization like the people who questioned Kirito when he woke up), and he doesn't know anything about SAO, only the past event where Kayaba declared the Declaration of Independence.

I'm also unsure if he could return, if I were to look at it through SAO's perspective, I wouldn't be sure if returning to the game would be possible, not to forget that no one would want to return to a death game. So I decided to put it in a track where he decides to help the people of SAO since two games have been mixed up, one of which, would be a nightmare in a Full Dive Virtual Reality experience (a close up look of the bosses in Bloodborne would be scary as hell in my opinion), and the other is a VRMMO with bosses that don't look as terrifying.

Reviews will be appreciated, it helps me improve, it also develops new ideas for future chapters.

Thank you to those who have followed and favorited this story, it means a lot to me.

(I'm usually scared when I open up reviews)

-Author who talks to himself


	6. Chapter 5

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 5**

 _'So they made it past the 28th floor, huh?'_ He thought, looking at a bulletin board. A paper with the name of "Weekly Argo" contained the headlines stating that the clearing group had gone through the 28th floor.

 _'I'm surprised that they haven't run into something different...'_ He thought, referring to the beasts and kin of Bloodborne.

He walked away from the board and continued his way around town, thinking of what to do. He was torn between lazing around or clearing dungeons.

 _'Someone has to do it...'_

This phrase had echoed through his mind from the past, a phrase he decided on. He decided to clear out the dungeons to be sure nothing from his world remained present in the other.

Ever since his last encounter with the beings of his world, he improved himself in combat and equipment. Obtaining the Sword Hunter Badge from the Cleric Beast, he purchased the Kirkhammer from the messengers in the Hunters Dream, as well as leveled up to increase his survivability.

A encounter from one nightmare to another wasn't exactly a bad thing for him. It reminded him of his roots and kept him in shape for when he needed to fight beasts and the other enemies of Bloodborne. If he stayed in an easier game like SAO, it would keep him from staying in shape or improving. It was like constantly training in an earlier level when you've already completed a harder one, it would be pointless and difficult as you progress.

* * *

 **April 8th, 2023**

 **11th Floor**

 **Taft**

"And here's to us, the Black Cats of the Full Moon! Cheers!" Ducker announced.

"Cheers!" The group responded with a clink of their chalices.

"And here's to Kirito-san, our savior!"

"Cheers!" They raised their glasses towards Kirito, who was seated in the front, in the middle of everyone's view.

"Ch-cheers." He replied, slightly unsure. He was never really good with words, as described by Klein.

"Thanks." The group started thanking him for his deed.

"You saved our hides." One of them remarked.

"Don't worry about it." He replied, assuring them that it wasn't something he couldn't handle.

"I was really scared, so I honestly felt relieved when you came to save me." One girl said, she stood out in the group, not because she was the only girl, but also the tone of her voice, she sounded like she saw a ghost.

"O-oh." He replied, stuttering.

"Um, Kirito-san... I realize this is prying, but mind telling us your level?" Keita whispered.

Kirito looked hesitant for a moment, glancing at his level in his HUD, trying to think of what to say.

"Around level 20..." He replied, still looking hesitant.

"Wow, that's pretty close to ours, I'm amaze that your survived on your own." He said, taking the bait. Kirito's expression turned serious, he looked at him and replied.

"Keita, don't be so polite." He said, Keita recoiled at his sudden change in expression.

"Solo players like me just target lone mobs, it's inefficient." He continued.

"O-oh, I see." He replied.

"In that case, Kirito, I know it's a bad time to ask, but how about joining our guild?" He inquired, looking hopeful. Kirito looked surprised at his sudden offer.

"Tetsuo's the only one that can act as vanguard since he's a mace user." He said, he then glanced at Sachi, the girl beside him.

"This girl's name is Sachi." Introducing her to Kirito, while patting her head about twice.

"I'm planning to have her switch to using a sword and a shield so she can also be a vanguard."

"Problem is, she doesn't really know what to do, mind coaching her a bit?" He continued, looking at Kirito again.

"Quit belittling me." She snapped in a quiet tone, escaping from his head pats.

"I mean, it's natural to be scared when you're thrown into a close combat role all of a sudden." She said, defending herself from what he recently said.

Keith's expression had "Huh?" written all over his face, surprised at her defense.

"Don't sweat it, you can just hide behind your shield." Replied one of their guild members.

"Jeez, you've always been such a scaredy cat." He replied, causing everyone in the guild to start laughing.

She let out a "Hmph" as a response and ignored them.

"Then... I think I'll accept." He said, he didn't sound completely confident, but it was good enough for them. They started cheering for him and introduced themselves to him, they were happy to have another fine addition to their guild, a circle where they could help each other out.

"Hiding and running from questions can only yield bad results." He muttered. A certain Hunter had walked in the place on a group celebrating their survival in the death game, accidentally eavesdropping on them from another table.

 _'Well, at least I didn't mean to.'_ He thought, assuring himself that it wasn't his intention to do so. He recognized their savior, it was the beater from the 1st floor boss.

 _'Well, he looks different, I remember a confident face from before.'_ He thought, observing them from a distance, he could tell he wasn't truly honest with what he answered in response to their questions just by how he acted, the facial expressions played a part in it as well.

* * *

 **May 16th, 2023**

 **28th Floor**

 **Wolf Plains**

He stayed up till late night just to grind for some more Col. It wasn't just for leveling or for gear, but he wanted to explore more of Aincrad and the beings that existed in it.

"These wolves aren't as annoying as those back at home." He thought out loud. "Home" meant Bloodborne, where the hunting dogs acted worse than the wolves here, he pulled is sword out of the wolf which then exploded into fragments.

He took a look around his surroundings, seeing a group of players dealing with the mobs, they all wore red colored armor or clothing.

 _'A uniform... Maybe?'_ He noticed one of them approach someone on the hill, where they exchanged words, the conversation was cut short when Kirito walked past Klein and moved away from sight.

"Shutting others out, huh?" His usual activity of talking to himself was interrupted when the same guy who approached him called out to him from the hilltop.

"Hello there! Out training?" He asked from a distance, his friendly voice erasing all thoughts of doubt from Ryuu's head. Whenever a group of players would run into a solo or lone player, they would sometimes take advantage of them or assault them.

 _'You shut out a friendly guy like him?'_ He thought.

"More like grinding for money, really." He replied back as Klein approached him.

"You gonna be ok going solo around here?" He asked, looking up and down at his armor.

"Yeah, nothing I can't handle, thanks anyway." He replied back, trying to sound friendly.

"What's with your armor? You looked different." He asked all of a sudden.

"It's nothing special, just what I need to survive." He said, trying to evade the question, he didn't want unnecessary attention, also his reason for hiding his pistol whenever he was in SAO.

"I'm playing with my friends in this area." He said, pointing to the group of people waiting for him.

"Wanna meet them? I'm sure you'll get along with them, you can join our guild if you want." He offered, a smile on his face.

He looked at his group of friends for a moment, thinking of what to say.

He then turned to look at Klein, who was still smiling.

"I hate to turn you down, but I'll stick to going solo." He replied, trying not to offend him.

"But thanks." He added, he didn't wanna seem rude to a person who offered a helping hand. He was one of those people who wouldn't hesitate to help others in need.

"Ah, I see, well, that's not a problem." Klein replied, sounding sincere, even though Ryuu started walking away.

He stopped for a moment, and glanced back at Klein, he didn't wanna turn him down _and_ leave a bad taste in his mouth.

"And Klein..." He said, trailing off. Klein turned to look at him again, stopping in his tracks.

"Keep that personality up, I can see you have the power to change an unsociable atmosphere, especially in this death game, I believe it will be useful these days." He said, complimenting his personality and assuring that his effort to help others didn't go by unappreciated.

"Oh, thanks." He replied with a smile.

"Well then, take care." Klein said.

"You too." Ryuu replied, walking away.

 _'Regret won't haunt you in your life with your personality.'_ He thought, the past still in his mind. He didn't know what bothered him about the past, he considered that he was fearful of having feelings of regret for what he was capable of doing.

"It's nothing, I'm sure." He sighed, relieving himself of his troubles.

* * *

 **June 12th, 2023**

 **27th Floor**

 **Dungeon**

"See? This is no problem for us!" One of them exclaimed, the guild decided to make money while their leader, Keita, was off buying a house for the guild.

One of them noticed a symbol on the wall, a symbol the other walls didn't contain. He placed his hand on the symbol and it lit up, a door then revealed itself from its hidden state. In it, there was a square room, a chest was in the middle of it, "Treasure" written all over it.

Ducker proceeded to run towards it, proud of his discovery, he then began to open it.

"W-wait!" Kirito warned, but it was too late. The rooms color turned red, and a few hidden doors opened, it was a trap.

One would've expected SAO mobs to appear from those doors, but what appeared wasn't in par with their expectations.

Three human-like mobs walked out of the door, two of them wore what appeared to be tattered armor, some bloodstains apparent in their armor, the third one appeared behind them, guarding the doorway to the exit. They held a light weapon and what appears to be a pistol in the other. Their armor wasn't completely tattered, only some of it, the third wore armor that looked clean. They were facing Hunters.

The group was surprised by the sudden appearance of these beings and stepped back, they formed a circular formation, covering all sides.

"W-what are these things?" One of them asked, looking scared or nervous.

"Not sure, but there's just three of them and there's five of us, we can take 'em!" He stated, sounding positive that they could beat them.

One of their guild mates charged forward, his weapon lighting up, he landed a direct hit, but the Hunter didn't get knocked back, it only flinched in response.

"Huh?" He sounded confused and surprised at the same time.

The Hunter swung his axe at him in response, it struck him from the side, catching him by surprise, the second followed up by swinging his sword at his back.

He let out a scream of pain, as he was hit with two consecutive strikes. He dropped on the floor, his HP hitting zero, exploding into fragments. The two Hunters turned to look at the party with their weapons ready, they slowly approached them, killing intent obvious in their movement.

The four remaining held off the three Hunters for a while, but the situation wasn't good, their HP was low and outside help would be a game changer from there.

One of the Hunters charged towards one of theirs, swinging his sword as soon as he was in reach, he (guild member) managed to dodge the attack, but the victory was short lived. The Hunter suddenly raised his pistol and shot him, stunning him, the Hunter then pulled his sword backwards, evident that a charge attack was going to be used.

His recovery wasn't fast enough to dodge the next attack, the sword forcefully stabbed him, the Hunter raised his foot and placed it on his shoulder, using it to push the blade off the player. Only three players remained alive, Kirito, Tetsuo and Sachi.

They were caught off guard as they stared at what was becoming of their guild member, exploding into fragments. One of the Hunters took advantage of this and struck Tetsuo from behind, followed up by another swing. Tetsuo joined his guildmates as he shattered to fragments.

Sachi, who was scared shitless, backed up till she bumped into the third Hunter, she turned around to see the Hunter looking down at her, the Hunter stabbed her with his sword and shoved her forward, removing the blade off his victim.

Kirito stared in horror, witnessing what three of these things were capable of, anger boiled in him as he charged at Sachi's killer. He used a skill that hit it, staggering it backwards, he took advantage of this by following up with another attack, knocking it on the ground. With all his might, he brought his sword down on the assailant, killing it in the process, blood flowing out the wound.

One of the Hunters took a swing at him from behind, jerking him forward, he turned to face the Hunter, swinging his sword back in kind. While he was occupied with one, the other rushed in, swinging his axe and followed up with a shot from his pistol, stunning Kirito.

It raised its axe up, ready to bring it down on the helpless victim. Events from Kirito's past flashed before his eyes, compelling him to think this was the end.

"No... I can't let it end like this..." He muttered, sounding desperate and angry.

The Hunter was about to bring its axe down until a hammer came from above, smashing its body to the ground, turning it into a corpse.

"Get up." Kirito heard the voice of the person wielding the hammer, he wore similar looking armor like the ones attacking him.

The Hunter transformed his hammer into a sword, pulling it from the built in sheathe attached to the hammer.

"So you ran into some Vilebloods, huh?" The good guy asked, standing in front of Kirito and facing the other two Vilebloods.

"Listen, their attacks are random, it will depend on how close you are to them." The Hunter explained, giving battle advice to Kirito, who recovered from the stun-induced attack, now standing behind him with his sword ready.

"Vilebloods..? What are those?" Kirito asked, confused.

"I'll explain everything after this, but right now, I'm gonna need your help." He replied, sounding oddly calm in the face of the Vilebloods.

"If you hit them once, they'll either pull a counter-attack or do nothing, it's random." He explained.

"If you hit them fast enough, and they won't be able to pull a single attack, be careful." He continued, one of the Vilebloods started charging towards him, but the moment it was in range to attack, he shot it with his pistol, leaving him open for a visceral attack. He didn't waste the opportunity and took it, blood spilled out of his target as it fell to the ground. He then transformed his weapon into a hammer, violently plunging it into the body to ensure its demise.

"One left, go for it." He said, turning to look at Kirito.

He followed his order and charged towards the Vilebloods, throwing a sword skill at it. He achieved a direct hit, but he noticed the Vileblood preparing to swing its sword at him, he dodged in time by ducking and pulled a backhand swing to counter its counter-attack, it then raised its firearm up, ready to shoot at him. He sidestepped, barely dodging the bullet zipping past him, he hit it again with consecutive attacks, killing the Vileblood as a result.

"That's all of them..." The Hunter trailed off.

"Were you with a group?" He asked, out of the blue.

"Y-yeah..." Kirito replied, remembering what happened to them.

"So you're the only one left, huh?" He asked, it was one hell of a rhetorical question.

"I tried to warn them..." He muttered, in a quiet tone.

The Hunter looked at him for a moment, thinking of what to say. He unequipped his weapons and let out one word.

"Pitiful."

"W-what?" The swordsman was surprised by his response and turned to look at him with a confused look on his face.

"I said it was pitiful, guess you were too good for them, huh?" He casually replied, as if it meant nothing.

"What did you say?" He asked, in an angry tone, anger was boiling in again.

"They must've been terrible at surviving on their own, you saw what happened to them, it's a shame, guess it was pitiful as well."

The swordsman lost it, he raised his sword up, swinging it at him. The Hunter grabbed the blade, stopping it midway, his hand was pressed into the edge, blood trickling down the blade and onto the ground.

"You said you warned them, so you knew something they didn't. And because of that, they're dead, you deprived them of their right to know." The Hunter presumed, raising his voice in anger.

He pushed the blade away from him and walked to a wall.

"Ignorance won't save anyone..." He sighed, dropping himself on the ground and sat down, leaning on a wall.

"Are you the only one left?" He asked, he knew it was a bad question, but he just wanted to know.

"No... Someone else is still alive, the guild leader." Kirito replied.

"You may regret whatever you've done, but thinking too much about it now won't change anything." The Hunter stated, glancing over Kirito to check his current condition.

"Have you-" The swordsman was cut short by a response.

"I made a decision about regret a long time ago." He replied, knowing what he was gonna ask.

"I know what I'm saying isn't considered comforting, but use this as a learning experience." He advised.

"You have to tell your guild leader what happened." He said, getting up from his spot.

"Much like how the military tells their families about what happened to them, it's only right to do the same." He stated.

"If they were close friends or friends in the real world, they're nothing short of family." The Hunter continued, heading for the exit. Kirito followed and stayed behind him, evidently affected by the recent events.

All this, caused by a series of unfortunate events, wrong decision and false words.

Regret, will always be one of the strongest emotions known to mankind.

 **AN:**

Hey guys, not your usual update with 1000 words or so, this is to compensate for the 1 week wait, I hope this will do, I try my best with these chapters.

Reviews, follows and favorites are appreciated

Should you have any concerns, leave a message in a Review or via Private Messaging.

Student guy, the one who reviews my stuff, is there any way I can contact you? I have no way of responding to you since you don't have an account, I apologize for the limitation in my response to your reviews, but I thought your suggestions were great.

Thank you everyone

-Author who talks to himself


	7. Chapter 6

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 6**

"A beater like you... Didn't have the right to be with us!" Keita was in grief when he was told of the news. The kind personality in him vanished, it was replaced with that of anger and hate.

In his hand, he was holding six keys, presumably for the house they bought, but those six keys were of no use by now. Keita turned to face the setting sun, glancing at it for a moment before climbing up on the railing.

A feeling of shock struck Kirito, his eyes widened in shock, they know what would come next. Kirito ran for towards him in an attempt to stop him, but it was too late. He was surrounded by nothing but air before he could reach him, he disappeared into the clouds, disappearing from their sight.

"There are no happy endings in Bloodborne..." He muttered, looking at the clouds below them. Even though SAO wasn't linked to the lore of Bloodborne in any way, the elements of Bloodborne had caused this to happen.

Much like how Bloodborne may have been inspired or based off of Lovecraft's lore, happy endings were scarce or non-existent. The only good ending that can come from SAO was clearing all 100 floors to leave the game.

Silence overtook the both of them, they both let the events sink in, they were nothing short of reality, even in this digital world. Ryuu knew that something terrible would happen the moment Keita would hear the news, and the psychological state of the SAO players weren't in good condition.

"They died... Because of my arrogance..." He said, trailing off. Kirito blamed himself for everything that happened to them clearly affected by the state of grief.

"If I hadn't kept my level a secret... Maybe they would've listened to me." He continued.

 _'Knew it.'_ He thought, his assumption was proven true now.

"The Black Cats are by no means a weak guild..." He stated, turning his head slightly to look at him.

Kirito's eyes widen in surprised, those were the same words he said to Sachi when he found her in the (what seemed to be) sewers, underneath a bridge.

"How... How did you know..?" He blurted out, immediately assuming he knew about the conversation, without having any proof of thought about it.

* * *

 _"I'm afraid of dying." She said, her tone sounding worried._

 _Kirito's eyes widened in surprised, as if it was something new or different. It would be no surprise for any SAO player to say that, considering reality being applied to a game._

 _"You're afraid of dying?" He asked, sounding like he misheard her._

 _She only gave a weak hum of agreement. Silence then took over them after her response._

 _'At least there isn't a Maneater Boar down there ready to kill you.' Much to their ignorance of their surroundings, another player was on the bridge, resting his hands on the railings. Ever since he started working on his own, wandering around the world, he had accidentally eavesdropped on multiple occasions._

 _He was walking around at night time in game, a peaceful time for him. There was something about the moon and the empty streets that seemed comfortable to him. Being a loner in life was one reason. He looked up at the night sky, reminiscing at the current setting._

 _'The moon, the darkness... All this is too familiar...' He thought, thinking back on the setting of Bloodborne. He took a bite off the apple he was holding, surprised that they hadn't heard him munching away on his food._

 _"You won't die." After some silence, an exchange of words began again beneath him._

 _"Really? How can you be so sure?" She asked, some doubt in her voice._

 _"The Black Cats is by no means a weak guild." He stated._

 _The conversation between them carried on, it was made up of reassuring one of their troubles and doubts. The psychological state of the players could only go two ways, many players were scared of dying, some locked themselves in an inn, waiting for outside help or for someone to finish the game. Others became determined to leave the game and joined or formed their own groups, an example of it would be the clearing group, they were the ones doing the work of trying to clear the game for the people. But not all determined players progressed to their goal._

 _There was a wall within the game where all of the names of the players were listed, for each death that occurred in the game, their name would be crossed out, signaling their passing. He wasn't sure how they got everyones names, creating a wall big enough to list 10,000 names would be a pain to begin with._

 _"This game won't be the end of you." Kirito said, firmly assuring Sachi that she would survive till the end._

 _Ryuu then turned to walk away from the bridge, realizing that he didn't have a reason to be hanging around and eavesdropping on two people._

 _'We'll see about that, beater.' He thought, walking away from the conversation._

* * *

"I've done a few things I didn't mean to." He replied.

"Well, if the Black Cats were able to manage on their own for that long before you came, then they sure aren't a weak guild." He said, agreeing to what he said from the past.

"It's not their fault they died cause of three hunters." He added, he didn't wanna anger him or make things worse for him, given his current condition. He wasn't the best at comforting either, his methods were rough and invective. Believing that reality was the best teacher.

 _'Beat them...'_ A voice in his head echoed. Then a sudden flashback appeared in his eyes.

 _'Show them who you are...'_

 _'They won't mess with you ever again...' In front of him, lay three three boys on the ground, trying to recover. They looked afraid and were ready to scream for help. He slowly approached them, his hands balled up to a fist. His head hung low, just staring at the ground with dead serious eyes._

 _"We were joking! We were just having some fun!" One of them said, panicking and fumbling for the right words._

 _"A joke..?" He asked, trailing off._

 _"Y-yeah!" He stuttered._

 _"I see..." He replied, his tone was deadpanned._

 _"R-really?" He stuttered, thinking he misheard what Ryuu said._

 _He sighed in relief, thinking all of this was over with._

 _"It's ok..." Ryuu suddenly said._

 _"Thank you... Thank yo-"_

 _"This is just a joke as well!" His serious demeanor suddenly vanished, it was replaced with a creepy, maniacal smile, his eyes looking like that of a killers._

 _Their eyes widened in horror as they witnessed what he turned into. They were only able to plead for mercy as he slowly approached them._

 _"N-no! Please! We can talk about this, we can be friends!" One of them blurted out, desperate for a way out._

 _"Friends..? Who needs those?" He asked._

He shook the memory off his train of thought. He went back to the situation at hand and turned to look at Kirito, trying to note for any differences that may have occurred during his memory flashback.

"Sorry, I spaced out a little." He said, informing him of his situation in case he missed out on anything he might've said.

However, there was no response from Kirito. He was still in the state of grief and depression, his facial expressions could be called dead.

 _'I remember the time I started being like that.'_ He thought, looking away to view the setting sun. Silence was an omnipresent being in this situation, but the uneasy atmosphere could be felt.

He (Ryuu) turned around and started to walk away. He knew better than to tell him anything comforting, given that he was the one who lectured him during the incident. Nothing he said would sink in Kirito's mind with how things were going.

 _'Best bet is to leave him alone.'_ He thought. He then stopped walking, he his head to look at Kirito, whose back was facing him.

"What's your name?" He asked.

There was another moment of silence between the two before Kirito answered the question.

"...Kirito." He replied.

"Ryuu." He replied, as if exchanging pleasantries, giving out his username instead of his real name. Except right now, it wasn't exactly supposed to be called "Pleasantries". He was surprised to find out that no one had taken the username "Ryuu", anyone would take a simple username like that one to avoid thinking long and hard about a username that possibly may have been already taken.

"Kirito-san, please get yourself together, moping around won't change anything..." He turned around and continued walking away.

"...especially not their lives."

AN:

Sorry for the long wait again, I'm a horrible writer when it comes to updating daily and all that.

Thank you for all those who followed and favorited, thank you for all the support as well, I apologize if I disappointed you guys in any of the chapters I released, and if you're satisfied about them, then that will do.

If you guys need any clarification or have any questions, please feel free to leave it in Private Messaging or through a review.

Response to reviews:

Student

Thank you for informing me of your current status, and it's ok, I don't mind if you don't have a current acc for contacting purposes.

I wasn't able to clearly get your review for the story, and I apologize for that, is it possible for you to clarify? Apologies, I do get your idea about the system though, thank you for the suggestion, thinking of applying it for the future chapters.

Any other reviews will be appreciated, suggestions and stuff as well.

Thank you.

-Author who talks to himself


	8. Chapter 7

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 7**

 _'I need to go back after this.'_

He was able to find Father Gascoigne's boss room. Like any other boss from a game like this, fighting him wasn't a walk in the park. Phase three would be a bitch to fight, but the use of a tiny music box would be a game changer when that time comes. Finding him within the 28-30th floor mark seemed rather late, an early boss like him would've been expected somewhere around the early floors

"What's that smell? ...The sweet blood, oh, it sings to me, it's enough to make a man sick."

Father Gascoigne laughed in a sadistic fashion, his humanity being eaten away by the old blood. His beastly side slowly taking over him, the second phase dialogue and the third phase was enough to prove that he succumbed to the plague.

He backed off from his engagement, his HP bar was close enough to trigger the third phase, his transformation. The man-beast fell on one knee, making him look vulnerable, a new or ignorant person would go for the false opportunity, but an informed Hunter would back off.

Anyone caught in his transformation would be knocked back, leaving them vulnerable to attacks, especially with the speed he had in his beast form.

The cleric transformed, letting out a high pitched scream, would've been enough to scare a SAO player shitless, given that their enemies weren't born from nightmares.

"Let's get this over with..."

He calmly selected the tiny music box and pulled it out. Just when the beast was about to charge at him, the box played a tune. This interrupted his charge, clutching his head in pain. He got behind him and released a charged attack, stunning him before he could recover. A spot for a visceral was open for use, not wasting the opportunity, he commenced the attack, blood staining his uniform and the surroundings.

After his visceral attack, he moved away, creating space between him and the beast. The cleric then jumped after him, his hands ready to be plunged into the Hunter. He hopped backwards, the boss landing right in front of him, he transformed his weapon, turning it into a hammer. Charging his attack, he brought it down on the enemy, slamming its body on the ground.

The fight continued along those movements, he was careful not to use the music box excessively during the fight. Excessive use of the box would trigger the transformation prematurely, making the fight much more difficult than it already was. Molotov cocktails proved to be useful in the fight, beasts were weak to fire, making it a weakness to be exploited.

He finished the fight off with another visceral attack, more blood gushing outside the beast's body. It was as if these beings from Bloodborne had too much blood in their body, a joke could be made saying that each time you hit or were hit by an enemy in Bloodborne, a liter of blood could spill out of you.

He lit the lamp that appeared after the fight, allowing him to access the Hunter's Dream whenever he needed to travel back. Traveling back was mainly just to level up and buy items from the creepy little skeletons called the 'messengers'. Those little guys even sell a whip.

* * *

He returned to Aincrad, his uniform stained with blood. His appearance earned him mixed looks, some in fear, others in disgust.

 _'I hate it when something makes me stand out...'_ He thought, attention was the last thing on his wish list. Anyone who likes being alone would agree, even without blood on him, his armor earned him some eyes from different players.

He walked up to a bulletin board to see if there was any updates on the news, looking around for a paper called with headlines in it. He found his target and read the current headlines posted on the front page.

 _"Unknown boss found, four dead."_ Was pasted in all capital letters, it's the next few lines stated that there was no existing information for it and that a scouting party of five had been sent to look for the boss room.

 _'Could it be..?'_ Suspicions cooked up in his mind. There was a possibility of it being proven true, a boss with no existing information could be a hidden one, or from another world.

 _"Boss conference will be held soon."_ He spotted a few lines announcing a conference, it's time and location.

"I should go, just in case." He muttered, the location of the conference wasn't far, it was just a walking distance from where he was.

* * *

 **Boss Conference**

Groups of people were gathered inside a building, people from different guilds were present. All of them were broken into small conversations with people quietly conversing with others, possibly discussing strategies with the little information they have.

The vice commander of the Knights of Blood was there as well, standing in front of a table with a determined look on her face.

"We'll send another scouting party to the boss room." She announced, without asking for any approvals or thoughts on the idea.

The people in the room looked at her in shock, questioning her idea.

"What? Why?"

"It already killed the first scouting group."

"We can't go to the fight unprepared, we need Intel on the boss." Her voice was stern and held its ground, siding with her own plan.

"That may not be a smart idea." A voice called out, people turned to the source of the voice. A Hunter walked towards the table, his clothes stained in blood. Their eyes questioned his appearance, some disturbed, others shocked.

"If your scouting party dies, what happens then? Will you send another one?" He questioned.

"In case you are unaware, I am the vice commander of the Knights of Blood." She declared.

"I have been entrusted with this mission, and you will do what I say." She continued.

 _"Well, she's being one hell of a bitch."_ He thought.

"I'd like to talk to the survivor of the scouting party." He said, ignoring her introduction.

A soldier stepped forward, and looked traumatized. Judging by his facial expressions, he had an uneasy look on his face and looked like he was ready to break down.

"Y-yes?" He stuttered like there was no tomorrow.

"Describe what you saw." The Hunter instructed.

"I-it looked deformed... A-and it's skin was hanging off its back." He replied.

"Why did your group engage it?" The Hunter asked, inquiring the traumatized survivor.

"It only had one health bar, so we thought it'd be easy." He explained.

"But... But it turned into a massacre, we were getting killed one by one! Before we knew it, we were the only two left, we were about to run for it, but the beast... The beast charged at my party member! It mauled him to death!" He was on the verge of just breaking down and freaking out at this point.

"We can't defeat it... No one can!" He exclaimed.

"This is it, isn't it..?" He fell on his knees, staring at the ground, his eyes looked like that of a madman.

"THIS... THIS IS THE END OF US!" He shouted out, two people behind him helped him up, trying to stop his mental breakdown.

His suspicions were confirmed with what he gave him, this boss would be a difficult one. The description fit a certain boss that the new players of Bloodborne hated.

"I'll go, if I die, one man dead is better than five dead." He said.

"What makes you think _you_ can take on it yourself?" The vice commander asked, doubting his intentions. He nearly forgot about the nuisance in the room if it weren't for her attitude.

"What makes you think I can't?" He asked back, answering a question with another question was a way of answering someone... With a possibility of pissing them off, of course.

The Hunter turned on his heel and walked away, eyes following his movement. The vice commander eyeing him, she looked ready to pull out her rapier and challenge him to a duel.

"I can't stop you from following me or clearing the floor." He called out, stopping in his tracks, turning to look at the vice commander in the eye.

"But I can't stop your death in the real world either." With that, he continued to walk towards the exit, heading for his destination.

"Two of them in one day, huh?" He walked out of the building and headed for the dungeons, avoiding any delay.

"This is tiring." He let out a tired sigh. But he couldn't complain about it, someone has to do it, it was the reason for his presence in SAO. He abandoned the logout option for a reason as well.

This was gonna be one hell of a day.

 **AN:**

Hey guys, another update here.

I apologize for my chapter yesterday, it wasn't that good of an update, had some errors and stuff like that.

Thank you to those who reviewed, I appreciate it. This chapter was an idea from a reviewer, just like the chapter which had the Vilebloods in it.

Thank you to those who followed, favorited and viewed the story, it means a lot to me.

Hopefully this chapter is decent enough for all of you to enjoy.

-Author who talks to himself


	9. Chapter 8

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 8**

"We move out in 5 minutes!" After the Hunter departed for the boss, he became the topic of the day. Some thought of him as a strange person, others an arrogant one. The soldiers in the conference room prepared to depart, players checked their gear, some engaged in last minute reviews regarding the plan.

 _"Who does he think he is?"_

 _"He's gonna solo the boss? Good luck with that."_

 _The room was full of chatter over the recent event. The vice commander looked irritated, the reason being the Hunter challenging and questioning her authority._

 _"We're heading for the boss room." She blurted out._

 _The room was filled with questions after hearing her order._

 _"I have no intention of helping him, but our goal is to clear this game, and we_ _ **will**_ _stand by that goal." She disclaimed._

* * *

 **Boss room**

 **Blood-starved Beast**

Pushing the door open, he entered the area. In front of him, was a familiar beast that had an unsettling design.

"So you're the one causing all this ruckus, huh?" He asked the beast, as if it would reply, a normal person would've thought he was delusional at this point.

"I'm gonna have to ask you to keep it down." He continued, transforming his hammer into a sword. Both parties slowly approached each other, ready for combat. He pulled out his firearm and switched his consumable to the antidotes.

The beast stood up on two legs and raised its hand up, knowing what it was gonna do, he ducked the moment it charged at him. He was able to position himself under the beast, taking the opportunity, he slashed away at its side and its legs. Constantly dealing a moderate amount of damage until it jumped away, repositioning itself.

Erratic movements and behavior were to be expected from this thing, for each attack it pulled, it would follow up with a dodge or a jump away from the Hunter, but that was for the second phase. It's first phase was slow moving and had a limited move set/attack combos. Playing aggressive wouldn't hurt for this one, but caution was also a priority.

The beast charged at him with its hand in the air, he stood his ground and timed his heavy attack carefully, releasing it too early won't be able to interrupt its attack and stun it, releasing it too late will end up being a waste.

He held his hammer until a small light pulsed in his weapon, and on cue, he released it on the being. The hammer was brought down on the beast, making contact with its body and smashing it to the ground. The beast quickly recovered and jumped away, and let out a roar. It was down to 66% HP and the second phase had already begun, this was when poisoning stepped in, as well as the use of antidotes.

The fighting carried on for sometime, with the routine of dodging, rolling and fighting. He played aggressive when it jumped away from him, landing him some hits and dealing a decent amount of damage. The third phase was now active at this point.

The beast roared again, signaling the third phase, poison dripping for its body. It then used its Poison Nova, but the Hunter was nowhere near the range of its AoE. It became much more aggressive during its third phase, always closing the distance to try and land a hit.

He backed off, trying to gain some distance from the beast, he pulled out a blood vial to restore his health. The slow poisoning was close to activating, all it'd take was one more hit.

 _'This is going slower than I thought...'_ He thought. He was able to bring it down to 20% health. If he brought it down any lower, a visceral attack would be enough to finish it off. The beast slowly approached him, it's pace or the speed of its approach was enough to disguise the distance it could cover with its reach.

It lunged itself forward with its claws ready to dig in to any flesh it hits, the Hunter jumped backwards, dodging the attack. An opening was made and he took it, swinging his sword at the beast, but it jumped to the side and took a swing at him.

 _'Crap.'_ He grunted and staggered backwards, it's tactic was successful, landing a hit on his side. A bar appeared on his HUD with a skull beside it, the poison was building up. He consumed a blood vial to restore his health. "Tricky little bastard." He muttered.

He ran towards the beast, ducking as a set of claws came his way, he then transformed his sword and slammed the hammer on the beast. It then pulled a low swing at him in response, aiming for his legs. He noticed this and transformed his weapon again, flipping his handle on the sword and stabbed the beast on the side of its arm, the beast howled in pain, utilizing the sword to jump over its neck, he slid down to the other side of its head, pulling the sword out in the process and landing on the other side. He performed a backhand swing, the blade making contact with the beast's head, catching it off guard and staggering it.

He heard footsteps coming from behind him, he turned to look at the commotion and saw some familiar faces, it was the clearing group. They arrived at the area, seeing a battle before them.

"I'm afraid it's a little too late for that." He calmly turned around and fired his blunderbuss at the beast, who was raising its hand to hit him. He timed it perfectly, successfully parrying the attack, leaving it wide open for a visceral. Using it as a finisher, he performed the attack, removing all of its remaining health.

The words "Prey Slaughtered" appeared as headlines in the room, everyone tried to comprehend what they had just seen. Their eyes were wide in shock and their mouths left wide open, even the vice commander looked like she just saw some shit.

"Vice commander Asuna-san, I don't recommend keeping your mouth open, unless you wanna attract some flies." He advised. This shook her out of her thoughts, bringing her back to reality.

"First you disobey orders, _now_ you insult me?" Her tone was enough to prove she was pissed.

"Asuna-san, I didn't join the clearing group, and I never will." He replied, his voice remaining calm. He stayed respectful to the people around him, believing that if he ever got into an argument, he can't be called out as disrespectful.

"...a duel." She suggested.

"Hm?" The Hunter sounded confused, unsure of what she said.

"I challenge you to a duel, if I win, you will join the clearing group and follow my orders." She proposed.

"If I win, I'll go solo and act as I see fit." He replied, stating his condition.

"...fair enough."

* * *

Duels were only available in a safe area, that being said, they were holding the duel in one of the guilds rooms. People piled up to see what was happening, some were looking forward to seeing their vice commander in action against another player.

She sent a duel invitation to the Hunter and a screen popped up in front of him. He looked through the three options available and selected First Strike Mode.

A timer appeared between the two names that announced the two parties dueling each other. A minute was given for the two to prepare, he opened his inventory to look through his items, checking if he wanted to change any of his equipment.

 _'Screw it, I'll stick to what I have.'_ He closed the menu and looked at the timer, there was about 5 seconds left before the duel started.

 _5..._

 _4..._

 _3..._

 _2..._

 _1..._

The duel started, Asuna charged in with extreme speed, her rapier glowing, signaling a light show and a skill taking effect. Just before her rapier was about to make contact, the Hunter stepped to the side, repositioning where his body was facing.

She was caught in surprise at his ability to react fast, even with her speed. They're eyes made contact, briefly locking on to each other. His eyes looked dead, it was hard to tell what he was thinking of with his impassive facial expressions.

But in the Hunter's mind, he was analyzing the way she moved.

 _'Fast, agile, presumably hard hitting. A glass cannon, maybe..? Perhaps easier to parry?'_ He thought, players who take on speed or agility as their main attribute sometimes sacrifice some health. If a player in Bloodborne focused more on endurance, an attribute that increased stamina, their health would be a major problem, not like anyone does that anyway.

She nearly tripped and fell on the ground if she hadn't recovered from ogling at his ability to dodge. She turned to face the Hunter, who was just standing still, watching her every move.

"You're fast." He remarked, complimenting her speed. She didn't reply, and just prepared herself for anything he might pull off. But nothing happened.

 _'Guess I could try.'_ He stood there and waited. Almost like a statue. She had an uneasy feeling about him, almost as if he was waiting for her to create an opening, signaling the right time to strike. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he rolled forward and swung his sword at her, she moved away just in time for her to dodge it, but it was a close one. She quickly closed the gap between them, hoping to catch him off guard and land the first hit. She held her rapier with both hands, ready to use a sword skill, her sword started the light show, the distance between them became shorter, and shorter.

 _'I have you now!'_ Mentally exclaiming at her achievement. But something else happened.

He raised his pistol up, and pulled the trigger. The impact of the bullet interrupted her attack midway, she was stunned by the sudden outside force colliding with her, making her drop on one knee. Leaving her vulnerable to any attack.

The audience was left surprised by the sudden turn of events. It left them a great amount of shock to find out their vice commander didn't win, they expected her to win with her superior speed and agility. But the last thing she saw before the end of the duel was a sword coming in from the side, landing a clean hit on her. Making it enough to knock her on the ground. Their faces were the same faces they had in the boss room, eyes wide and mouths wider.

A hand reached out to her, offering help. She looked up to see who owned the hand, and it was none other than her opponent.

"Winning a duel doesn't mean I have no respect for my opponent." He stated. She was surprised by his morals, the first time she met him, he could've been considered a jerk with the way he talked to her. She ignored the offer and got up on her own, sheathing her weapon and dusting off her armor.

"I was caught off guard by your first move, barely dodged that cause of how fast you were." He remarked, complimenting her abilities.

"So you _do_ have manners, didn't think you had it in you." She replied in a sarcastic manner.

"Trust me, I get that a lot." He replied, in a casual tone.

"Anyway, conditions apply, orders are optional-."

"Yeah, I know, I know." She interrupted, sounding irritated.

"Well then, I'm headed off for now." The Hunter turned and walked away, players parting to make way, as if he was parting the Red Sea.

' _That escalated quickly.'_

* * *

A few days have passed since the duel, nothing much happened since then. It was the usual day, players clearing dungeons and finding a boss room. But something unexpected happened today, a message icon appeared in front of him.

"Oh?" Surprised by the notification appearing, he pulled up his menu and looked at his inbox.

 _"It's Asuna,_

 _Our men seem to have triggered a quest from an NPC, and it described the enemies in the quest as 'beasts'. They went and tried to do the quest, but retreated shortly after, they say the enemies didn't look anything like an enemy that would be in SAO._

 _We need your help, a conference will be held today at HQ, your attendance would be appreciated. We're not quite sure if they are, it's only speculation on our part, it could be entities from your world."_

"..." This was a surprise, a quest with beasts in a game that didn't have any entities infected by the old blood. Oh, and a formal letter from the vice commander, who hated him. He closed his inbox and dismissed the menu, he looked up at the sky and took in his surroundings.

 _'You got dragged into this too, huh?'_ He asked, as if the game itself was alive. He wasn't sure how Bloodborne integrated itself to the VRMMO, but he knew one thing for sure: it meant trouble.

 _'Time to go...'_ He turned and walked for HQ, half of him was hoping this quest didn't have anything to do with Bloodborne, the other half didn't care and just wanted to deal with it. Having to deal with a boss or anything from his game for thousands of players was heavy weight, dying would mean they had to deal with it themselves without having the needed information for the bosses and enemies. The entities didn't run on attack patterns, they choose what they wanna do to attack, there are phases, yes, but they didn't stick to a single move set for this phase and another for the other phase.

* * *

 **Headquarters**

 **Clearing Group Conference**

He walked into the building, making his way to the conference room.

 _'Clearing group's one hell of a group.'_ He thought, looking around. Their numbers could make them one hell of a guild, they could easily overrun a boss room if they wanted to, but numbers weren't always a deciding factor, skill could be a great factor as well.

He pushed a door open and saw the same sight he had seen from before, players gathered all around a table, all from different guilds and some solo. He saw the vice commander talking to a guild mate, but her chatter was interrupted when she turned to see who just entered the room.

"Vice commander." He greeted, approaching the table.

"Ryuu." She replied, her voice leaving no hint of kindness in them whatsoever. He let out a tired sigh, she was still giving him the cold shoulder, despite the respect he had for her.

"So, what was all this about?" He inquired.

"Like I stated in my message, they triggered a quest from an NPC. It also said their town was plagued by a disease, turning the inhabitants to creatures they called 'beasts'. She began, passing on the information she knew.

 _'This is too good to be true...'_ He thought, he was torn between the this quest coming from Bloodborne, or a quest that was from SAO but seemed similar. To him, it made no sense if a Bloodborne quest was programmed into a VRMMO.

"What else did they say?" He asked.

"The source of the plague came from the Grand Cathedral, they say that a dangerous being lies there as well, know anything about it?" She interrogated, sounding sassy.

 _'It can't be...'_

"I'm gonna have to take a look." He replied, he was about to walk away until the vice commander stopped him.

"We're coming with you." She declared, her voice firm.

There was a moment of silence in the room, the Hunter was in thought and the vice commander was waiting for a response. Dragging groups of people into the unknown isn't a great idea, but it could help him clear the quest faster. There are two things that can happen as well, they could end up slowing him down or speed things up. Knowing that these players weren't dropped into hell the moment they started playing, it could only go downhill. Hell being, the difficulty of the game, that is.

"Fine, but follow what I say." He replied, delivering the awaited response to the commander.

"Why are we obliged to follow you?" Someone from the crowd called out, evidently having a problem with what he said.

"Why are you obliged to clear the game?" He replied, using a counter-question to answer the question.

"Because you wanna live, you wanna go back to the real world, you wanna make it till the end." The Hunter continued in a cold tone, leaving no time for a reply.

"And if you wanna live, I suggest you follow what I say, sir." He continued, addressing him respectfully. He began to walk away, heading for the unknown quest that had been activated. The other dude looked salty and was ready to lash out at him, but it'd be hard to just release your anger on someone who's stating facts.

"Everyone, ready up, we're heading out!" The vice commander ordered.

He exited the building and waited at the entrance for the clearing group to prepare themselves, he started thinking of the situation once more, trying to add up the details and finding a conclusion that made sense. But it proved to be a difficult task without the knowledge of SAO, he was ignorant of its programming and how it ran.

 _'Perhaps the code runs on a system that creates new quests through environmental situations? But how would it be compatible with the Bloodborne code..?'_ His theories and conclusions only ran in a circle, he thought he'd ask a player once this was finished, hoping to find a good answer on all of this.

He turned his head to see the members of the clearing group coming out of the building, all ready for combat. And in front of them, was their vice commander, leading the way.

The Hunter then turned back and started walking, his head still in thought. He was hoping the mission would go well and hoped for minimal casualties. If things went wrong, it could turn into a massacre and greatly impact their strength as a group.

 _'Remain wary of the frailty of men...'_

 **AN:**

Hey guys, sorry for the really long wait, I hope this chapter can compensate, I know it's rather short for an eight day wait, but I started school late, so I'm trying to catch up with all my subjects and stuff.

Thank you to those who reviewed, followed and favorited, much appreciated.

Ideas:

Credits to Pan302 for suggesting the interactions between the Hunter and the clearing group.

Credits to someone (I forgot who) for suggesting the idea with the Cardinal system screwing around with Bloodborne


	10. Update (Current situation)

**Authors Notes:**

Hey guys, author here.

Update:

There will be no update or new chapter today, I'm still writing the update, work in progress. I haven't been able to write much cause of school, been trying to catch up with school lately. The reason being, is because I started school 27 days late. So I have a lot of tests and homework to work on.

Im really sorry for not being able to keep up with the story, I really am. I will be focusing on writing this week since I don't have a lot to do anymore. Next chapter, I plan on having it around 3-4K words, but I'll also need suggestions and reviews. That being said, please just don't hesitate if you have a suggestion, review etc. It will really help out a lot

Anyway, again, I do apologize for the slow rate of updates and I hope to post a new chapter soon.

\- Author who talks to himself.

Hey guys, since I'm still unable to see your reviews, I'm gonna have to ask you guys to send your reviews through Private Messaging. I apologize for the inconvenience.

(Note created September 28, 2016)


	11. Chapter 9

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 9**

 **Triggered Questline**

The clearing group arrived just outside the village, the Hunter in front of them. An NPC was standing in front of them, asking to be talked to. He approached the NPC and interacted with it.

"Oh, Hunter! Please help us, our village has been overrun by beasts!" The NPC exclaimed.

"That's not what it said last time..." Asuna muttered.

"Please take this, it's what we have, we hope it will help you in your hunt." He received five blood vials from the NPC.

"What are those..?" Asuna asked, everyone else's facial expressions screamed the same thing, he stored the blood vials in his inventory and dismissed the menu.

"Healing items." He replied. He looked at the village and behind it was a cathedral, which he presumed was the final area.

"I'm guessing the final area is in that cathedral over there." He said, pointing at the huge building towering over the village. "Possibly a boss." He continued, informing them of the possibilities that could happen in the quest.

The group advanced into the village, their formation was like that of a circle, covering all sides. But the Hunter could care less about it as he stayed ahead of the group, only looking in front of him as he advanced forward.

"You seem rather relaxed for a situation like this..." The vice commander commented, sounding suspicious.

"I don't always rely on what I see, sometimes, I use my hearing instead. The enemies here will always make noise when they engage players." He explained. Just ahead them were a group of huntsmen, equipped with various weapons.

"Company ahead, these guys are just fodder. But be careful, I've seen these guys take out players before."

Without another word, he pulled out his sword and charged towards the group.

The vice commander noticed this and called out to him in an attempt to stop him.

"Wait!" She shouted, he ignored this and continued his charge. He performed a jump attack on the nearest huntsman, forcing his blade down on its back. Two others engaged him, one thrusted its pitchfork at him, he leaned backwards and dodged the attack. The second followed up by swinging a cutlass at him, he quickly deflected the attack using his sword before it could hit him, staggering the huntsman momentarily. He transformed his weapon into a hammer and pulled a wide swing, knocking both of the enemies down and killing them.

Two hunting dogs came into view, running right for him. One attempted to pounce on him, he leaned backwards in response, dodging the pouncing attack. The other dog tried to jump on him as well, but he grabbed it by its neck and slammed the beast on the ground behind him, he pulled out his blunderbuss and shot the creature in the head, blood shooting off its head. He turned his attention to the remaining beast, who was midway jumping on him. He swung his sword upwards, slapping the beast off to the side.

He turned to check on the group that was just behind him. Only to find out that they were all looking at him like he just did something crazy.

"Let's move, no time to waste." He called out to them, advancing forward, leaving the group to catch up.

They continued along the beast-infested town and arrived near a staircase that led to the grand cathedral. The group was about to advance until a few church servants came into view. Tall, masked beings that were neither kin nor beast. The three entities approached them, all their weapons varying with each one. One held a cane, the second held a crucifix, and the third held a cane and a lantern.

"Be careful with these guys, their attacks are simple and predictable, but they deal considerable amounts of damage. Take caution." He instructed, they nodded their heads and understood his instructions. Two more church servants appeared behind them, both using a cane. Summing up to five enemies to deal with.

"Everyone, form a circular formation, cover all sides." He ordered as he noticed the two others approaching from behind. The servants continued walking at a constant pace, as if they were leisurely strolling through the park.

One raised its lantern up, three orbs appeared on top of the lantern, which transformed to slow moving homing missiles. The Hunter charged forward, dodging at the last second to disjoint the missiles heading for him. He closed the distance between him and his target and slashed a region of its abdomen, forcing it to take a step backwards. It responded with a swing of its cane, it swung its weapon twice, hoping to hit the assailant. But the Hunter jumped back, avoiding both attacks, he turned his sword into a hammer and charged his attack. After a moment of holding he dropped the huge brick into the masked servant, crushing it to the ground.

He turned to look at the other groups, they were managing on their own with a some difficulty, but not to the point they'd die. _'One of them might die, if they get careless...'_ He thought, imagining how that'd go. He turned to glance at the stairs leading to the cathedral and spotted a giant, beefy guy with a cloak and a big axe.

 _'Well, shit...'_ Things could get worse with that thing near the group.

"I'll leave these church servants to you guys, I'll take on that big guy over there." He notified, directing his message to the vice commander, who was in the middle of fighting.

"Wait, what?!" She replied, struggling to reply in the midst of fighting.

"You'll be fine, I'm sure you guys got this." He called out as he ran towards the executioner.

He turned back to face his target, only to find out it was in the air with its axe ready to plunge down on him

"Shit." He muttered, realizing he didn't pay any attention to his target during his charge. He jump to the side in an attempt to dodge the incoming axe, but the blade glanced off his side, removing a small part of his health. He recovered his composure and stood ready in front of the hooded figure. The figure swung its axe thrice in rapid succession, he dodged the first two by leaning to the side and jumping back. On the third swing, he tried to deflect the axe by swinging his sword at the incoming blade. Resulting in both weapons making contact and deflecting each other, the impact made both parties stagger.

He dashed forward and slashed away at his opponent, quickly recovering from the impact. The health bar constantly drained from the enemy with each hit. He transformed his weapon and dropped it on the executioner, crushing its body on the ground.

 _'I should get a new weapon...'_ He thought, inspecting his hammer.

His inspection was interrupted when the beefy guy picked itself up in front of him.

"Right, I forgot about you for a second." He said, apologizing to his opponent, as if it would reply back.

He swung his hammer at it, the huge brick smacking it at the side. He removed the sword from the sheathe, reducing its weight and slammed it at the enemy, he attached the sword again and hit it for a third time. Ensuring a kill.

He heard footsteps behind him and turned around, Asuna stopped behind him.

"How'd it go?" He inquired, hoping to head good news.

"We have some men injured, but no casualties." She replied, bringing some decent news with her.

"If they're badly injured, they're top priority. Send them back, they can't continue in a place like this." He suggested, almost sounding like a command. She eyed him for a moment, her facial expressions were sassy.

"Sorry, if that sounded commanding." He quickly apologized, hoping to escape a scolding from the vice commander.

She let out a tired sigh and nodded in agreement.

"I was thinking of the same thing." She replied, sheathing her rapier.

"How sweet of you." He complimented, rather sarcastically.

In a flash, she pulled out her rapier and pointed it at him, her face turning red with anger and embarrassment.

"Actually, I was joking. I ain't about that life." He claimed, raising both of his hands up and taking a few steps backwards.

She collected her chill and sheathed her weapon, clearing her throat.

"Well, where do we go now?" She questioned, in an authoritative tone.

He turned to face the long set of stairs behind him. "Well, there's only one way we can possibly go to." He said, pointing to the stairs leading to the grand cathedral. The Hunter started walking to the direction of the stairs.

"You're in for a treat." He said, chuckling like a sadist, or a masochist, depending on how you look at it.

"What's so nice about this area..?" She muttered, following close by.

They arrived at the top of the stairs, in front of an archway that led to an even bigger area. At the altar, was a woman in white robes, kneeling on both knees and reciting a prayer.

 _"Remain wary of the frailty of men. Their wills are weak, minds young."_ She prayer could be heard from the distance, almost sounding like whispers from where they were.

Asuna looked around, searching for the source of the voice. "Where's that voice coming from..?" She asked, her eyes going all over the place.

"Over there." The Hunter pointed out. She squinted her eyes and noticed the lady in white, kneeling. "Is that... The final boss..?" She inquired, skeptically. The group of men behind them were just in front of the archway, waiting for a signal to proceed.

"You'll see." The Hunter replied, casually. As if on cue, the woman in robes held her pendant close to her chest. She let out twisted-sounding growls, her body began to deform and grow bigger, bulging out of her normal form. Blood sprayed and stained the statues near the altar as it screamed wildly. Her body strayed from anything considered to be near human in nature.

Asuna, stricken by horror, stepped back. Her eyes were filled with shock and was trembling in fear. The men behind her were doing the same.

"W-what is that!?" She asked, stuttering. Her voice had evident panic building up inside of her. Her hand was reaching for the handle for her rapier, trying to ready herself for combat.

"Our final target, that's the boss." The Hunter replied, calmly observing the bulky creature in front of them. The white wolf turned around and bared its razor sharp teeth at them. Vicar Amelia wasn't entirely a wolf, it appeared to be mixed with antlers, making it look like a nightmare version of a stag. Basically, a messed up and twisted version of a stag from a breeding-gone-wrong.

"Pretty cool, huh?" He asked, the tone in his voice sounding excited. "This one is one of my favorite boss designs too!"

"What's so cool about that?!" She shouted back, she couldn't believe how the hunter found this cool or awesome, and thought he needed serious help.

"Aww… What's wrong? The vice commander scared over a little blood?" He mocked, sounding cheeky and faking a worried voice.

That pissed her off.

"S-shut up!" She shouted, her cheeks turning red from embarrassment. "Only a delinquent, malcontent would like something like _that_." She retorted.

"Ouch, that hurt." He replied.

The deformed beast's head shot up and roared. After it's battlecry, it slowly approached them, holding the pendant on its left hand. The Hunter turned to face the clearing group, hoping they were ready for hell.

"Asuna-san… Behind you…" He pointed out. Mist started to farm within the archway, prohibiting entry and exit from both sides.

"Vice commander!" One of the men called out, trying to run in and break through the mist. The vice commander stood there, trying to comprehend what was happening. When she finally made out the situation, she tried to run towards the archway and break through, but it was futile.

"Do you have any other means of escape?" The hunter asked.

She pulled out a teleport crystal and tried to scream at it, but to no avail. She stared at the object in horror, realizing she was stuck in the area with a huge, deformed wolf and a delusional hunter.

"Well… There's only one way to get out of this." The hunter turned around to face the boss and pulled out his sword, walking towards the target. The Vicar jumped towards him, bringing its fists down on the ground, ready to beat dat one guy into a pulp. And the Hunter was ready to sock her in the mouth. He rolled out of the way and ended up below her, he quickly started slashing her legs, trying to open up a visceral attack opportunity.

The white wolf jumped back, and followed up by planting its hand on the ground and pulled a low swipe, grinding her nails on the ground. The Hunter was knocked back, getting smacked from the AoE, he dashed forward and continued fighting. He was able to recover most of his health, but his stamina was running slow. He jumped back to recover more stamina, preparing for another assault. The vicar advanced on him, it raised its fist up the moment it was in range and slammed it down on the ground. He moved out of the way and got behind her. He was about to begin his second assault, but the target pulled a backhand swing, smacking him again and knocking him back.

 _'Tricky bastard…'_ He thought, getting irritated. He backed off into a safe distance. The Hunter pulled out fire paper and used it on his sword, flames emanated from the sword he was holding, this shit was going to be lit.

 _'Let's see how you like this…'_ His expression turned dead serious, he wasn't holding back on this one. The Hunter charged at the messed up wolf, it balled its hand into a fast and slammed it on the ground. He stepped to the side and flipped his handle on the sword. He stabbed the hand, and held tightly on the handle, the beast roared in pain and shot its hand up, hoping to stop the pain. With the snap of his fingers, the sudden jolt flung him into the air, like a rocket being launched to space. He pulled out his sword at the right time and continued his vertical flight, he repositioned himself in a diving position when he began his descent. The tip of the sword was placed in front him as he carefully aimed for the wolf's head, he got closer and closer to his target as he descended lower.

 _'Surprise, motherf*cker.'_

The sound of bones being shattered could be heard as his sword pierced through its head, the blade went through the top of its snout. The wolf howled in pain and started shaking its head like crazy, hoping to throw out whatever was on its face. The heated sword burned the wound, making things worse.

 _'Stay still.'_ His body was being rocked back and forth as its head was shaking. The Hunter tried to keep his grip on the sword to avoid losing his only weapon.

 _'That's it…'_ He was able to perform a visceral attack on the flailing wolf, staggering it and causing it to fall on the ground, he pulled his sword out and fell on the ground. A huge portion of the health bar was removed from the damage he dealt. Her health was down to 50%, phase two was in order. It slowly moved backward, trying to get to a safe distance for it to heal. He was about to charge forward, until he noticed something—or _someone,_ was missing.

He turned to try and find who was missing from action, and noticed Asuna still standing on the same spot from before. Her hand was holding the handle of her rapier, but her weapon wasn't pulled out of its sheathe. She was staring wide-eyed at the boss, fear evident in them.

 _'What the…'_ It was a wonder to see her like that, he was used to the stern, tough and bossy vice commander in the conference room and in combat. He turned back to the boss, who was triggering its healing animation, her health slowly started healing back up.

 _'God damn it…'_ He clicked his tongue in annoyance and approached the frightened girl. He dropped his weapons on the ground as he approached her, he grabbed her by her shoulders and gently shook her.

"Hey." He said, almost whispering. Trying to find out if she was still in her mind, her body was stiff, no wonder she couldn't move at all. She suddenly fell to her knees, unable to support her own weight with fear overtaking her body.

"How..?" She trailed off. This confused him and gave her a puzzled look.

"What?" He asked, in a confused tone.

"How… How do you bare this nightmare..?" She asked, her voice was weak.

 _'Believe me, I look at a fucking mirror all the time…'_ He understood why she was like this, the way a game ran like this in a Virtual Reality perspective was a messed up one for sure. It would be normal for a person to react like this, it was like playing a horror game, in a first person perspective. "It's something I've gotten used to." He replied.

"I've been dealing with enemies like this solo, I stayed strong and tried to be brave." He explained, hoping it would get through to her.

" _You_ have to be brave too, you have to fight. Your men are worried about you, they need a leader to guide them. You can't die now, not like this." He continued, she didn't look scared anymore, her body was no longer as stiff as a rock. She loosened up from the lecturing he was giving her.

"What will happen to the clearing group if they don't have a leader? Replacing someone like you isn't an easy task." She lowered her head, it was difficult to know what she was thinking of with her face hidden from sight, but he could tell she wasn't ok.

"Listen, if you can't handle this, that's fine. I can handle this myself, and you can rest." The Hunter said, assuring her there was no shame in turning back and staying behind. The floor shook and heavy footsteps could be heard behind them. He got up and turned around, picking up his weapons from the ground. The vicar was already approaching their location, with killing intent. It was able to heal itself back to 75% while he was bringing Asuna together.

The Kirkhammer wielding Hunter ran forward, beginning his assault. He dodged her first move and started hacking at her left hand, he was able to force her head to lower with his continuos assault. He transformed his hammer and swung it directly at its head with all his might. The charge attack staggered the vicar backwards.

 _'He's right…'_ She thought, his words having an effect on her. _'I can't be like this.'_ She was mentally scolding herself for her weakness and cowardice. The fog of fear was slowly lifting away from her mind as she began collecting herself. _'I… I can't be weak… I can't leave him to do everything…'_ She slowly reached for her rapier, making a firm decision in her mind _'I **will** fight, I have to… I want to go back to the real world.' _ She got up, her facial expression turning determined. She wasn't going to abandon this man when he needed help, she decided to fight and atone for her inability to perform in combat.

Both Hunter and prey stared at each other, the Hunter pulled his sword out of the hammer, while the prey bared its teeth at him. The vicar suddenly swooped its head in, opening its mouth to try and catch the Hunter with its teeth. He jumped back, barely avoiding the sudden assault. He was about to move in to attack, until he noticed light glowing from behind him. In a flash, his adversary was hit multiple times, the movements were too fast for it to track. It was caught off guard by the sudden armed intervention.

"Glad you could make it." The Hunter said, watching the target back off. The vice commander walked up beside him with her rapier drawn out and pointed at the white beast. "Alright, listen, its weak points are its legs." He stated, passing out information on the boss. "I'll divert its attention, you go around and aim for its legs, it'll create an opening for me. Hit it hard." The Hunter instructed.

"Understood." She replied, following his order.

 _'Wahhh! Sugoi ahh!'_ He thought, going nuts. The vice commander was actually cooperative and following his instructions. This was one heck of a sight for him.

"Let's go." With that, he charged forward, dragging his sword along. The vice commander followed, running alongside him. The wolf roared at them and slammed its fist on the ground, both players parted and covered different sides.

 _'We settle this, now…'_ He thought, running towards the gigantic beast. The Hunter ran in and swung his sword at its right hand. On the other side, Asuna got behind the beast and quickly rushed in, aiming for the legs with a sword skill. The beast jerked to the side and lowered its head, open for a visceral. The Hunter walked up to her and performed a visceral, screwing her over. The Hunter and the vice commander regrouped in front of the enemy, ready for another assault. The beast backed off and brought its pendant close to its heart, healing itself from the damage it took.

Both players rushed in, Ryuu taking the first strike. He transformed his sword and dashed in with a charge attack, interrupting the healing process. Asuna came in second, stabbing the beast multiple times. The Hunter rushed in again, slashing away at the enemy. Both players showed synergy and switched after each attack, overwhelming the boss. Their routine continued throughout the fight, occasionally backing off to recover lost stamina.

It wasn't long until the boss had been defeated, leaving both players exhausted. Headlines appeared along the words of "Prey slaughtered." Indicating the quest had been completed and the town saved. The Hunter received the final blow, a window popped up in front of him. It rewarded him with extra money and an item.

"The hell…" Something different appeared in front of him. The vice commander heard him and looked at him in confusion. "Something wrong?" She asked, wondering what it was all about. The Hunter didn't reply, and dismissed the window. He opened his equipment menu and equipped it. A rapier materialized in his hand. A rapier by the name of Reiterpallasch.

"A rapier..?" The vice commander asked, inspecting the weapon. The Hunter transformed the weapon and fired at the area in front of him. Her eyes widened in surprise at the transformation.

"It's not a bad weapon. But this isn't where I'm supposed to get it…" The Hunter said.

"Well, I'm not complaining." He said, transforming the weapon back to a rapier.

"Vice commander!" Someone called out from behind. It was the rest of the clearing group, the mist dispersed and no longer blocked anyone from entry. They looked worried as hell, probably feared the worst during the fight.

"I'm fine, thanks to him." The vice commander assured them. She turned to the Hunter and flashed a smile at him, mouthing the words "Thank you" for his good deed. Of smacking her with some sense. The Hunter replied with a gesture that screamed "You're welcome.".

 _'Wahhh! Sago ahh!'_ The Hunter was freaking out inside. This was the first time he saw her smile, _and_ at him.

"The quest is finished, we should head back." The Hunter suggested. The vice commander nodded in agreement and turned to the men behind her.

"Let's head back." She ordered, the men nodded their heads in agreement.

The clearing group began heading back. The Hunter turned around and approached the lantern and tapped it, activating the spawn point. He turned back and followed the group, making his way back with them.

 _'Guess things went well…'_ He thought. He was standing on a hill, under a tree. The hill overlooked a village, the green plains, the breeze and the morning sun created quite a scenic view. _'All this… Seems real… It's almost hard to believe this is all in a virtual world…'_

He let out a tired sigh, wondering when they could possibly head back to the real world.

' _You'll just have to wait, Ryuu…'_ He thought.

 _'Besides, there's not much you can return to, back home…'_

 **AN:**

Hey guys, sorry for the wait.

I made a 4000 word chapter to compensate for it, I really do apologize for all the delays.

Credits to Student for suggesting the Cardinal System to be involved in the story, he has helped me make this chapter and further progress the story! Much appreciated!

Another mention from before, was Pan302! He suggested the MC interaction with the clearing group, he has contributed a lot to my story! Thank you, as well!

I am open to suggestions or ideas for future chapters, if you have an idea that I can implement, please do say so! Reviews are also much appreciated, it helps me improve my story.

Sorry, again, for the long wait. I shouldn't have let you guys wait that long.

-Author who talks to himself


	12. Chapter 10

**AN:**

Hey guys, how's it going?

Just to clarify, I won't be removing any pairings from the anime or altering them. If I ever do pair him with anyone from SAO, I'll have to think about it first.

Response to reviews: ( **If you have not left a review in the past chapter(s), you can ignore this)**

Student Regarding sword skills, I don't have any plans in mind for that. I don't really know a lot of the sword skills in SAO, so it would be tough. If you have a plan in mind, you can send me a private message and we can try to figure it out.

That's all, hope you enjoy the story.

* * *

 **Error in the code**

 **Chapter 10**

 **Plains**

 _'Guess things went well…'_ The Hunter thought. He was standing on a hill, under a tree. The hill overlooked a village, the green plains, the swaying breeze and the morning sun created quite a scenic view. _'All this… Seems real… It's almost hard to believe this is all in a virtual world…'_

He let out a tired sigh, wondering when they could possibly head back to the real world.

 _'You'll just have to wait, Ryuu…'_ He thought.

 _'Besides, there's not much you can return to, back home…'_

He seated himself on the grass, enjoying the view and the wind blowing on his face. His session of peace was interrupted by the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned to find the source and saw Asuna approaching him.

"What do you want?" The Hunter asked, looking out into the distance. She folder her hands and let out an annoyed sigh. "Despite what you did, you still act rude, huh?" The vice commander asked, annoyed.

"I like to see it as a form of inquiry." He replied, deciding to sound like a smart-ass.

"You need to fix your attitude." The vice commander said. The Hunter let out a sigh and stood up, turning to face the vice commander.

"Trust me, I get that a lot." He said, nonchalantly.

"Anyway, aren't you supposed to be at work?" He asked, wondering why she wasn't out clearing dungeons for just about everyone in SAO.

"Work?" She replied, sounding confused.

"Yeah, that stuff. You know, clearing out dungeons and achieving the logout button." The Hunter clarified.

"Oh. Well, we decided to take the day off, we've had a lot on our plate lately. Besides, if we were gonna do something, the commander would let us know." She explained.

"I see…" The Hunter said. There was a moment of silence between the two, both of them were staring away at the scenic view. They were in thought, realizing something missing during their missions.

 _'Where was he?'_ They thought in unison.

"Do you happen to know where a certain someone was, during the missions?" The Hunter inquired, trying to remember his name.

"I believe his name was Kirito… He wasn't with us in the last mission. But he's in the meetings." He continued, hoping Asuna would have an answer.

"I was actually thinking of the same thing, I'll have to find out." She replied, crossing her arms, a frown forming on her face. "You go do that." He said, what the swordsman did was none of his business, but he was curios as to why he barely appeared in the missions the clearing group took part in.. "I've done my part in those missions." He continued, making sure she didn't forget about his contributions.

With that, the vice commander turned and walked the other way. About to commence an investigation to find a missing person. _'Yeh, keep walking.'_ The Hunter thought, his thoughts would provoke a fight club in SAO, if they weren't thoughts. It was the result of being a loner and having boredom reign over you.

 _'Ahh…'_ The Hunter thought, finally having a moment of peace to himself. Enjoying the swaying breeze, under the shade and all the greenery. All of which was what he considered paradise, a drink would've completed all this.

 _'Should've gotten a drin—'_

"Geez, this is when you're supposed to say 'Bye.' To me." The vice commander whined, interrupting his peace.

There was a moment of silence, dedicated to mourn on his lost peace. The scenic view still existed in his eyes, and given the situation, it was the least he could ask for right now. He dreamt of the day he met solitude, and it's loving care. It would be a dream-come-true to his eyes, and solace to his mind…

 _'Are you fucking serious right now..?'_

 _'Kill me now…'_ He thought, dying inside. When he first met the vice commander, she was all stern and acting like a bitc— bossy, a bossy person. Now she's loosened up around him and screwed around. _'Unbelievable, the hell that about?'_ He thought, asking himself questions as he walked around one of the floors in SAO.

His stroll in the park was interrupted when multiple players emerged from their hiding spots, behind trees and bushes, their weapons were drawn and ready for combat. The area was currently empty, it was perfect for an ambush. _'Oh? What's this?'_ The Hunter asked himself, surprised by the sudden act.

 _'Ohh! Am I on TV? Is this a prank? MOM, get the camera!'_ Deep inside, he was dicking around with his thoughts. Truly a delusional, malcontent Hunter to the core. All players blocked his path to the town, they all had orange cursors on top of them. A seventh players appeared in the middle, a green cursor on top of him.

 _'Six players, all of which have orange cursors. And one green. The green one probably baits innocent players, while the orange ones intimidate.'_ The Hunter theorized, studying the pattern in front of him. He heard rumors about players luring unsuspecting players into an ambush and robbing them of their items, as well as learning what the colors represent in the cursors or indicators.

"Hello there, fellow player, as you can see, you're surrounded by six people. And we can do this the easy way… Or the hard way. If I were you, I would go with the easy way out." The one in the middle spoke up, presumably the leader of the group. A confident smirk plastered on his face, thinking this one was in the bag.

"Depends, what's the easy way?" The Hunter replied, wondering what conditions they would have for him.

"Simple, just fork over your money and your gear and we'll leave you alone." The leader replied back, stating his conditions.

 _'Just as I thought. Cowards looking for an easy way to gain power.'_ The Hunter thought. People like these were bound to appear after the death game had officially started. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, something was tempting him.

"And what's the hard way all about?" He asked, but he already knew what it was in the back of his mind.

"Well, we're just gonna have to force it out of you then." The leader replied, smirking and putting on a toothy grin.

 _'That's more like it.'_ The Hunter thought, this was something he would enjoy. _'I'll wipe that shit-eating grin off your face.'_ He continued, preparing himself for a fight. He didn't pull out any of his weapons, he decided to fight by hand. It was to avoid killing anyone, despite their attempt at mugging him.

"Sorry, but I don't plan on going down without a fight." He stated. Causing all seven players in front of him to burst out laughing.

"As you wish, boss." The leader said, this was their cue. One of the men charged forward, a battlecry being released as he continued his charge. The assailant attempted to thrust his sword forward, but the Hunter leaned to the side stretched his foot in front of his enemy, tripping him. The bandit picked himself up and turned around for another attempt, but his face was met with a fist the moment he turned around. The Hunter followed up with an uppercut, knocking back the attacker and dropping him to the ground. Another man rushed in with a mace, the Hunter turned around and threw another uppercut at him. He quickly plunged his elbow down on the second man's chest, forcing him down on the ground, knocking him unconscious.

 _'Two down, four more to go.'_ He thought, keeping count.

Two men suddenly rushed in from the other side, the other following close by. The first one swung his axe at him, he ducked and elbowed his stomach. Forcing the man to bend forward, the Hunter jumped up and shot his knee upwards, hitting the man square on the face. The second dude had an axe as well, he raised his axe up and brought it down on the Hunter. Ryuu raised both his arms up in a reflex motion, his arms landed on the handle just below the blade. _'That was close…'_ He thought, evaluating his situation. The pressure was increasing the longer he stood there. He kicked the attacker in the gut, liberating him of the pressure brought down on him. The orange player was vulnerable up above, the Hunter brought both his fists together and slammed it on his back.

"Two more…" He muttered, directing his attention at the last two in front of him. The leader stayed at the back, gritting his teeth. And he looked pissed.

"What the hell are you two doing?! Get him!" He barked out in frustration.

The two goons exchanged glances before nodding and charging in. One held a sword, and the other had a spear. The spearman ran in and thrusted it at him, the Hunter stepped to the side. He was about to move in and disable the man, but his opponent followed up with a swing of his spear, hoping to at least cut him.

 _'Close call, would've gotten poked if I didn't wait.'_ The Hunter thought, barely dodging the second attack. He kicked the back of his enemy's knee, forcing his enemy to fall on one knee. The Hunter pulled a second move on his enemy, ramming his fist on the dude's cheek. He then grabbed the spear and rammed the bottom part of the handle on the goon's face, taking him out.

The second goon went unnoticed as he swung his sword at the Hunter's back, successfully wounding him. The Hunter jerked forward from the hit and slowly turned to the attacker.

"That hurt…" Was all he said. He slowly advanced forward at his enemy, the goon slowly backed off in fear. The Hunter broke into a run as he started his assault, his adversary gathered his act together and blindly swung the sword. Ryuu lowered his head and changed the direction of his charge by moving to the side and slamming the bottom part of the spear on his enemy, he followed up with a spin and pulled a slow swipe with the spear, aiming for his legs. He successfully broke the sword-wielding goon's balance as he fell to the ground.

 _'Time to finish this one.'_ The Hunter thought, ramming his foot on the poor guy's face. It was the last thing he saw before he fell unconscious. The last guy remaining was staring at him, trying to comprehend what he just saw.

In the blink of an eye, the Hunter rushed in. His elbow slamming into the leader's gut, knocking him down. He flipped the handle of the spear and threw it at the leader's shoulder, pinning him to the ground. The next thing he did was plant his foot at the immobilized person's face. He leaned forward, his facial expressions showing no sympathy. His prey could feel the coldness of his emotions, the aura making it unsettling.

"Numbers are mere quantities… Strength in numbers won't always fall under your favor. A knowledgable person can emerge triumphant over _petty_ numbers." The Hunter stated, looking directly at the man's struggling eyes. "The next time you try to rob me of my belongings, I won't show you the same mercy you're receiving from me now. An orange or a red indicator doesn't bother me one bit, even if it means spilling your blood across the path." He continued, informing him of the consequences he may receive from the Hunter.

The Hunter removed his foot from the man's face, but left the spear pierced through his shoulder. He looked around at his surroundings, players were littered around the area, unconscious. _'Maybe I can ask her to lock them up.'_ He thought, wondering who could toss these guys to jail. He pulled up his menu and composed a message to Asuna.

 _"It's Ryuu,_

 _I got orange players here that need to be locked up, can you do it?"_

He sent the message to the vice commander, hoping for a positive response.

 _'That was satisfying…'_ He thought, looking around at the people he took down. Ryuu was a person filled with hatred and vengeance, a person composed of nothing but raw, negative emotions. He enjoys releasing his emotions through any method, despising anyone he considers to be the scum of society. But despite all the negativity he feels, he keeps it under control as a countermeasure in avoiding any unnecessary quarrels. A logical person.

A message icon popped up in front of him, signaling a reply. Pulling up the menu, he looked through his inbox and the message was from Asuna. _'Well, there we go.'_ He opened the message, revealing its contents.

 _"I'll be on my way, how many are there?"_ He looked around, counting the amount of people he socked in the mouth. After the math, he sent another message.

 _"Seven."_ Shortly after he sent it, a reply came in.

 _"Understood."_

"Time to play the waiting game." The Hunter muttered, walking over to a tree. He placed himself under the shade and leaned on the tree, waiting for her arrival.

 _'He managed to get seven orange players down…'_ She thought. Wondering how he was able to do such a thing. They were getting closer to his location, she brought four people with her, all of which were following her to the given location.

They continued their walk, until littered bodies came into view. The group tensed up from what they saw, no longer relaxed from their stroll. The bodies had their hands tied behind their back, and their mouths were covered with a cloth, preventing them from any form of communication with their mouth.

"These must be the guys, gather them and get ready to escort them." The vice commander ordered. The men nodded and proceeded to pick the players up and gathered them into a line. All of them looked like crap, as if they were brutally beaten up by someone.

"That's six… Where's the last one?" She asked to no one in particular.

"Over here." A voice called out from behind. She turned around and saw Ryun holding a stick— no, a spear from the bottom of the handle. Below him was an immobilized man with a green cursor, his shoulder had been pinned to the ground by the spear. The Hunter's indicator was no longer green, instead, it was orange. The group stared at what they were seeing, their eyes as big as saucers.

"Why is your cursor orange?" The vice commander inquired, her hand making its way to the handle of the rapier. A frown made it's way to her face. The rest of the soldiers reached for their weapons as well, in case they needed it.

"Well, I attacked a green player. They used a simple strategy, and I'm sure you know what their strategy was…" He explained, trailing off the last few words. She knew what he was talking about, it was a common tactic orange guilds liked to use.

The vice commander looked at him skeptically, giving his reasoning some thought before releasing the grip on her rapier and gesturing the men to do the same. There was still a frown present in her face as she loosened her grip.

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it… But going around town with that indicator is gonna draw attention." The vice commander warned. The Hunter pulled the spear out of the ground, freeing the impaled person. The weapon left a mark on the leader's shoulder, a big, red mark with a cartesian plane on it. It wasn't a cartesian plane, but it looked like it. Kayaba Akihiko must've been obsessed with math to create this game.

"Guess I"ll just have to deal with it. I won't exactly be staying in a town, anyway." He replied as he picked up the person below him and shoved him to the men taking in the prisoners.

"Where will you be staying at?" The vice commander inquired, prying into his life.

"To where I belong." He replied, pulling up the window and selecting the Bold Hunter's Mark. He triggered the teleportation and his body slowly started fading away. The vice commander watched him disappear from sight, noting the difference in the animation and design.

* * *

 **Hunter's Dream**

 **Bloodborne**

The Hunter materialized in the usual spot when a teleportation would occur. He took in the familiar sight, the moon high up in the sky, a creepy doll and a Hunter in a wheelchair who was disguised as a disabled man… He has a cool weapon though.

"It's been a while since I've been here…" The Hunter reminisced. He walked towards the doll and was greeted by the living object. "Welcome back, good Hunter. What is it you desire?" It asked, a menu popped up with three options. He was currently level 85, thanks to the quests from SAO and the bosses from Bloodborne. If only life was like a game…

 _'But then again… This game rewards us with our lives if we complete the game.'_ He thought. The very incentive of this game was messed up, their lives are hanging off the edge and waiting for the time to fall off.

"Guess I'll level up, got a ton of money, anyway…" He muttered, holding his hand out in front of the doll. Magic flowed out of the doll's fingers, it was sorcery.

* * *

 **Aincrad**

 **SAO**

He returned to the world of Sword Art Online and wandered around places, looking here and there. The stroll carried on, he saw other players doing quests and grinding in the fields, but nothing different from the usual. It was the same sight players would see in a typical MMO game.

He stumbles upon a path that looked abandoned and unmaintained. The trees were dead and dark in color, it looked like something that would come from a game he knew of.

"Looks fun, maybe there's candy." The Hunter thought out loud, marking the lively looking forest as his destination. He continued to traverse the road, following wherever it led to. Dead leaves and twigs lay on the ground, from the looks of it, the trees lacked nutrition and were long dead. His march came to a halt when he spotted groups of NPC's gathered outside the entrance of the city, the city didn't look like it was in a good shape either. It was ruined and abandoned, he took note of the amount of NPC's taking refuge outside, possibly from something dangerous in the city.

An NPC came running over to him and spoke to him in a desperate voice.

"Good Hunter! Please help us! Our city has been overrun, but the Hunters in the city refuse to hunt the beasts. They believe the beasts that roam are human and decided to protect them!" The NPC exclaimed, pleading for help. A window appeared in front of him, the quest was named "Hunter of Hunters". Completing the quest would unlock a safe zone that could be used by players in-game. The conditions were simple and direct: Clear the city of beasts and neutralize the Hunters protecting them.

"Surprising…" The Hunter muttered, taking in what he heard from the NPC.

"Must've threatened to kill these civilians, if they tried to harm the beasts running around…" He said, assuming the circumstances of the situation.

"Guess I'll be the one calling for help, this time…" He concluded, knowing who he would have to turn to for this one. He rejected the quest and set his destination for a shady cult's headquarters. The quest could end up creating a war inside the city, and if it was gonna be a war, only one side was going to emerge victorious.

 _'Maybe the game will balance it out by nerfing enemy Hunters, or something…'_ He theorized, hoping for the best possible action the game took. The Hunter turned on his heel and walked off. He was off to pay a group he knew a splendid visit.

 _'You guys are gonna love this…'_

* * *

 **Aincrad**

 **Shady Cul- Clearing Group Headquarters**

The Hunter pushed the door open and walked in the room. In front of him, was the vice commander discussing matters with other officers. She turned around to see who entered the room when she heard the door open.

"Ryuu?" The vice commander called out.

"Who else would be wearing something like this?" The Hunter replied. Asuna ignored his question and went straight to the point.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, a curios look on her face.

"I came to ask for help." The vice commander raised an eyebrow at him, it was the first time she ever had him ask her for help.

"Help with what?" She inquired, sounding curios.

"I ran into a quest that unlocks a safe zone on a city scale." The Hunter replied, informing her of what he encountered. She let out a sigh and crossed her arms. "I was gonna talk to you about the same thing…" She replied.

"But it looks like you've already encountered them." The vice commander continued.

"We stumbled upon the same people as well. It started when we finished the floor boss beneath that level." She explained.

 _"We did it!" One of the men exclaimed, cheering for their victory. The group had a mini celebration over their triumphant battle, but they knew it was a little too early for that. Soon after, they ascended up to the next floor, every floor unlocked was a step closer to achieving their goal._

 _The town near the floor entrance was filled with players after their battle. Some looked happy and excited, others, otherwise. Guilds, parties, solo players and the like began exploring this newfound area, aching for knowledge and other discoveries._

"But not long ago, we received reports of a quest that rewards the players with a safe area. The players who reported to us only brought bad news with them, their guilds wiped out, party members killed, and some solo players dying just to save them." She paused for a moment before continuing her story.

"We dispatched a group to try and clear the quest, but only a few of them returned."

"How many did you send?" The Hunter inquired.

"Twelve people, two parties." She replied.

"How many came back?" He asked, there was a moment of silence from here. Indicating bad news bears.

"…only five returned."

 _'Called it, bad news, indeed.'_ He thought. Turns out, the clearing group attempted to try it for themselves, only to have it go downhill.

"What wiped them out?"

"From what they told us, it's not only beasts that are roaming around the area, something else appeared in the area." The vice commander replied.

"What else came up?" There was another moment of silence from here, judging by how this conversation was going, the Hunter assumed everything went horribly wrong. A third party, the players, died trying to complete the quest themselves, guilds wiped out, another seven from the clearing group dead, and a different kind of enemy in the quest. It's only safe to assume that the players involved went in without a plan or without knowledge of what to expect within the area.

"…Hunters."

* * *

AN:

Hey guys, another lengthy update. It's all thanks to the suggestions, as well as the ideas in my mind. I hope you guys will enjoy this one. Please, DONT be afraid to send suggestions, if you have any.

Thank you to everyone who followed and favorited the story, much appreciated.

-AWTTH


	13. Chapter 11

**Error in the code**

 **Chapter 11**

 **Clearing Group Headquarters**

"Djura…" He muttered. There's only one known man out there who would protect beasts, and he was one of the Powder Keg Hunters.

"It's Djura…" The Hunter repeated.

"Who?" Asuna asked with a confused look on her face.

"He's a Hunter who renounced his vows and decided to protect the beasts, believing they were still 'Human'." He explained, leaving out the huge mini gun part. _'Im not sure if he'll have that thing in this mission.'_ The Hunter was hoping he didn't, if he did, they could get wiped out in minutes. It was gonna be a tough mission, beasts and Hunters against one Hunter and a bunch of players from an MMO… Not a great matchup.

"Any mobs you harm there is considered a capital offense to him. Followed by the punishment of murder." He continued, literally saying whatever he wants to say. There was a moment of silence from the vice commander as she was eyeing him in a not-so-nice way, given the stuff he's saying, it's expected, isn't it?

"…Does he have any allies?" The vice commander asked.

"Well, judging by how your game has been screwing around with mine, I'm assuming the beasts roaming around won't harm him." The Hunter replied.

"But it's not limited to that, other Hunters have followed his example. They'll be giving him a hand in protecting and defending the beasts." He continued. He didn't know how many of them he'd have as allies, but even one is bad enough for them.

"How many Hunters will be on his side?" Asuna inquired, trying to squeeze out more information for the clearing group to use.

"I'm not sure, but one Hunter as his ally would already be bad." He replied.

"Many people are going to die. Prepare your men for the worst…" The Hunter blurted out, trailing off at the last word. The statement left her confused, she wondered how he would know. She always thought of Ryuu as a mystery, an stoic solo player who showed no sign of kindness or sympathy on the exterior, but helped her when she was near paralyzed during that one boss fight. His acts weren't limited to that, he always helped the clearing group when they needed his help, attended conferences and participated in missions. It was two personalities contradicting each other. She decided to put her questions aside and leave it for another time, prying in when she didn't even know him that well isn't exactly a great idea.

"I-I see." She replied, clearing her throat. Without another word, she turned and walked back to the other guild members, resuming their discussion. The Hunter followed suit and walked for the door. She turned around and watched him leave the room, careful not to catch his attention.

' _Ryuu… You really are a mystery.'_

* * *

' _I shouldn't have said that.'_ He thought, realizing what he said. Saying something like that would've made him seem suspicious, but that wasn't what he was worried about. Since when did he ever start caring about people dying? He didn't know any of them, to begin with.

' _It's already happened.'_ A voice in his head echoed.

"I know that." The Hunter replied. He sighed and cleared his head from his thoughts, he looked up to the sky and realized how quiet things were. Quiet and isolated areas were his favorite places to be in, mostly spending the time in thought. _'Guess I'll just walk around.'_ He thought, he expected it to respond, but the voice gave no reply to his thought. With that, he went on and started walking around, placing his hands in his pockets.

' _There's nothing to do today, anyway. And the conference will be held tomorrow.'_

* * *

 **February 24th, 2024**

 **47th Floor**

 **Floria**

Orange guilds are a pain to deal with. They get a green person to slowly lure unsuspecting players into a trap, it was one hell of a method. If Ryuu had to deal with it, someone was gonna get hurt. He loved teaching people a lesson, even if it meant slapping the **bitch** out of them.

Eavesdropping was an entity Ryuu knew too well, like unintentionally running into a conversation as a third, unknown party.

"No, I have an entirely different reason. I've actually been searching for you, Rosalia-san." Kirito replied. He had been listening to this conversation for a while now and things were escalating.

' _Another attempt at mugging someone?'_ The Hunter thought, watching them from the shade of a tree. He was surprised no one even saw him standing there, and watching like an owl.

"What nonsense are you sprouting?" The woman named "Rosalia", replied.

"You assaulted a guild called "Silver Flags" ten days ago, didn't you?" The black swordsman asked. "Four members were killed, leaving only the leader alive." The woman in black twirled her hair, showing no care or interest in her previous acts of crime.

"Oh, I remember those hobos." Was all she said as she twirled her hair.

"Their leader went to the plaza near the Teleport Gate, at the front lines, begging for someone to avenge his friends." The swordsman continued.

' _Now that I think about it, I did hear about someone causing a ruckus. Something about sending some people to prison.'_ He thought.

"But rather than wishing death upon your guild, he only asked that you guys be thrown into prison."

'… _yeah, what he said.'_

"Can you understand how he must have felt?" The man asked, with a serious expression on his face.

"Of course not." Rosalia replied, in a carefree tone.

 **#Triggered.**

The Hunter nearly came out of his spot, thinking it would be fun to beat her up. If it weren't for his reasoning, it would've been a mess by now.

"He sounds like an idiot for taking it seriously." Her voice was annoying to his ears.

"He sounds like an idiot for taking it so seriously. It's not like it's been proved that death here applies in the real world, too." Damn, she really was a bitch.

"Besides, you don't have the luxury to be worrying about the others right now." With a snap of her fingers, seven men appeared from their hiding spots. They were all grinning like idiots, thinking it was going to be an easy one.

' _Reminds me of those idiots that tried to mug me.'_ The Hunter thought.

"Kirito-san, there are too many of them!" The little kid exclaimed. The swordsman was calm and smiled at her. "Stand back and ready the crystal in case I tell you to run." He said, putting a hand on her head.

The idiots were left in a state of shock when they heard his name. They realized who they were messing with, but Rosalia didn't care and ordered them to commence their attack. They rushed in with their swords glowing, hacking away at Kirito. The Hunter watched them ganging up on one guy, but his health was recovering at short intervals.

' _Was wondering what he was doing at first, turns out he has a something up his sleeve to keep alive… Nice one.'_ The Hunter thought, silently complimenting his preparedness for battle.

"What are you punks doing? Kill him already!" Rosalia shouted in frustration.

"Around 400 damage every ten seconds, huh?" Kirito concluded. The Hunter tried to stifle a snort coming out of him, he choked and started coughing. Were these guys _that_ weak? It was almost a joke, to him. Even the bandits were surprised after they found out that they couldn't even scratch him, the swordsman talked about something healing him for 600 HP every ten seconds. That left them doubting if it was possible or not. What a bunch of noobs.

"My client spent every penny he had to buy this." The swordsman said, raising a teleport crystal up. "The teleport point's been set to the prison area." He said, looking at the men surrounding him. "Which is where you'll all be going!"

' _This is getting boring… Let's make things clearer to them.'_ The Hunter thought. He walked out of the tree and onto the bridge. The little girl was surprised when she saw him walk past her. _'Time to make an entrance.'_

With that, he dashed in kicked the first guy in the back, launching the bandit forward. The other six turned in surprise and gripped their weapons tightly, even the black swordsman gripped on his sword.

"400 in ten seconds? If we divided that between the ten of you, that's around… Fifty seven damage each of you deal, you guys low level mobs, or something?" The Hunter asked, laughing. A second bandit rushed in and thrusted his sword at him, Ryuu leaned back and threw a shoulder charge at him. In the middle of his charge, he pulled his rapier out and placed the tip of the blade on the man's stomach, firing his transformed weapon at point blank range.

' _Two down, five more to go.'_ The Hunter thought, smiling wickedly under the mask. Three goons decided to move in at the same time in hopes of overpowering him with numbers.

' _Haven't used this one, yet, might as well try now.'_ A weapon materialized in the air, he grabbed the cane and transformed it. The cane, now a whip, was swung at the assaulting men, hitting all three of them and knocking them back. _'Not done, yet.'_ He approached one of the men and switched weapons, stabbing him with a rapier and fired the built in gun afterwards. He loosened his grip on the weapon and let the recoil push the rapier out. One of the three men, picked himself up and commenced another attack at him.

' _Never learn, huh?'_ The Hunter blocked the incoming sword, both weapons sliding against each other and creating sparks. He aimed his pistol under the deflecting arm at the assailant's leg, pulling the trigger and disabling the man. The goon's eyes widened in surprise at the sudden impact from the bullet, sucks to be him, huh? The looked at the third bandit and noticed the guy didn't pick himself up.

"Not even gonna get up, huh?" He asked. The goon only shook his head frantically, evidently scared of him. He looked at the two remaining orange players, who were still gripping their weapons and glaring at him.

"In case you fail to realize, looking at me like that isn't going to make anything happen." The Hunter remarked. Both bandits exchanged glances before running in and charging at him. "That's more like it." He muttered, readying himself for a fight.

The first man ran in and swung his sword at him, he deflected the attack and kicked him in the gut. The second man followed close by and tried hitting him with his axe, the Hunter dodged the attack and punched him square in the face. He switched between targets during the fight, deflecting, blocking and dodging their attacks. As well as countering them with a smack or a kick.

' _Time to wrap it up.'_ The Hunter thought. As soon as he dodged the first bandit's attack, he threw an uppercut at him, launching him in the air, he followed it up by kicking him and sending him off to the side. The shady Hunter turned to the other man and saw an axe coming his way, he stepped back and barely dodged the swing. He punched him again, causing the target's head jerked to the side. The orange player was left vulnerable, the Hunter took the opportunity to kick his knee, forcing him to kneel. A third punch came in and jerked the poor victim's head, the bandit's head slammed against the stone at the side of bridge and knocked him out.

"Guess that's all of them…"The Hunter thought out loud. He turned to the guild's leader and realized there was one more that needed a beating. "…oh wait, forgot about you." He thought out loud. In a blink of an eye, he dashed in and grabbed Rosalia by the throat, lifting her up in the air.

"Would you like to test your statement?" He inquired, sounding curios.

"I'd like to see if death here really does apply to the real world." He continued, talking in cold tone. Rosalia's eyes were as big as dinner plates, apparently scared shitless. The Hunter threw her to the ground and turned to the black swordsman. Kirito was eyeing him suspiciously with his hand gripping at the sword, the little girl with the swordsman stared at him in fear.

"You said these guys were going to jail?" He asked, approaching Rosalia and jamming his foot on her face. There was a moment of silence from Kirito before he replied.

"…Yeah."

"We should send them off, then." The Hunter advised. Removing his foot off the struggling woman and began approaching Kirito.

"It's been a while, Kirito-san." He remarked.

"I guess…" Kirito replied, looking around at the players littered on the ground. The Hunter glanced at the kid behind him eyed her up and down. _'Even kids got dragged into this mess, huh?'_

"I see you're helping someone out." The Hunter commented, glancing over at the kid he was helping.

"Yeah… Her familiar died, I'm helping her resurrect it." The swordsman replied, awkward as ever.

"Hmm…" The Hunter mumbled.

"You didn't have to do any of this." The swordsman said.

"It's more satisfying when you show them the consequences. They only get what they deserve." He replied. There was a moment of silence between the two, the Hunter surveyed his surroundings, making sure all the bandits were screwed over and dealt with.

"I'm off, for now. Make sure these people are locked up." The Hunter instructed as he started walking off. The swordsman watched him fade into the distance, eyeing him. There was a bad feeling the swordsman couldn't shake off about him.

* * *

"Sorry, Silica." Kirito apologized.

"I ended up using you as bait." The swordsman admitted, revealing his hidden agenda, how spooky. "I thought you'd be scared if I was straight with you." Silica gently shook her head and reassured him that she didn't mind.

"You're a good person, so I would've trusted you." The brown-haired girl said.

"Kirito-san, who was that man?" Silica asked, her facial expression turning curios. He fell silent, pondering on his answer.

"He's… Someone I know, I met him during an encounter I had with… Enemies." He replied, trailing off. "He helped me out, during that encounter." The swordsman said, continuing his explanation.

 _"No... I can't let it end like this..." He muttered, sounding desperate and angry._

 _The Vileblood_ _Hunter_ _was about to bring its axe down until a hammer came from above, smashing its body to the ground and turning it into a corpse._

 _"Get up." He heard the voice of the person wielding the hammer, he wore something similar to the ones attacking him._

 _He transformed his hammer into a sword, pulling it from the built in sheathe attached to the hammer._

 _"So you ran into some Vilebloods, huh?" The good guy asked, standing in front of Kirito and facing the other two Vileblood Hunters._

A flash back occurred in his mind, recalling his encounter with the Hunter. It wasn't limited to the Hunter, the flashback reminded him of his guild members. His friends that were slaughtered by the hands of the Vilebloods.

"Are you leaving now?" Silica asked, interrupting him from his sudden flashback.

"Yeah, I've been away from the front lines for five days now. I need to hurry back." Kirito replied.

"Th-The clearing group is pretty amazing, huh?" The little girl blurted out. Apparently being an admirer of the clearing group. "No matter how many years I train, I'll never be able to join it." A moment of silence entered the room, as they both stared at the interesting wall in front of them.

"Um… I…"

"Levels are nothing more than numbers." The swordsman stated, interrupting her.

"Strength in this world is just an illusion. There are more important things." He continued, slapping in some reality in his speech. "Next time, let's meet in the real world." He turned to her and gave her a reassuring smile. "When we do, it'll be as friends, just like now."

"Yeah! Im sure we will." Silica smiled back at him, showing some of that enthusiasm at him.

* * *

' _Oh boy, that was tiring.'_ The Hunter thought, stretching his arms and looking at the setting sun. _'Conference tomorrow, be there on time.'_ He sat down below a tree and leaned back. He welcomed silence into his moment, basking in the quiet and serene area, the luscious greenery on the land and the design the word of Aincrad had.

' _Fuck the orange guilds.'_

AN:

Hey guys, usual update with the 2,000 words. My last two updates with 4,000 words in it were made possible with the ideas running around in my head. I'll be putting the quest line in the next chapter, haven't entirely planned it out yet.

This will be a short read, and I apologize for that. I didn't have much to place here, and that's entirely my fault. I apologize if the words on my updates aren't consistent, as well as my rate of updates. But I hope you guys will enjoy this one, even if it's short. If you spot any typos or errors, please let me know and I'll correct it as soon as possible.

Thank you.

\- AWTTH

 **I really hate ACT and SAT, such a pain in the ass.**


	14. Response to review(s)

Response to Review(s)

To Student

Hello there, I'm amazed and surprised that you researched on that stuff! But I seem to have a problem, when I paste the YouTube link, it only send me to the YouTube homepage and not the video itself. I was able to see the other link, which was a post and I didn't know what they were talking about, apologies. o_o

To salomjesus3

Yeah, it would be an understatement if he ever encounters the Laughing Coffin guild.

To Pan302

Thanks! I'm thankful you like the story and stuck here till now, your support is much appreciated!

To Guest

I'm sorry to hear you no longer/don't like the story. I managed to understand your review after a bit of reading, please make your review a bit clearer. "You need to read a few about how to write." This part got me rather confused, read a few what? I'm assuming lessons or guides. Another one that had me confused is "Simply put this story is 'primitive'." I managed to get it after I rephrased it into: "To simply put it, this story is primitive." I don't mean any hate on your review, I'm only trying to clarify what you said, apologies. Also changed "Full of plot hole" into it's plural form "Full of plot holes". I'm sorry if I have to point these out, I would've sent it through private messaging, but you have no account.

1\. Obviously no proofreading - I do apologize since I don't really proofread, I somewhat rush chapter updates to meet a deadline (which is every week) and that's why I left a note saying my errors should be pointed out, so that I may correct it.

2\. Plot holes - Please point them out, so that I may resolve this.

3\. Changing POV without a warning/heads up/notification - For the story, I don't know if this will answer to that segment of your review. But I'm using a 3rd Omniscient POV, a narrator that knows everything, but isn't a character in the story. If you want to see different perspectives using the "I" voice (1st person) then I'll have to think about it if I plan on turning it to a 1st Person point of view.

That's all.

Question: How big do you guys think a city-sized safe zone would be in Sword Art Online? I'm interested to know what you guys think.

Thank you to all those who favorited and followed my story, your support is appreciated. Thank you to the people who gave out some suggestions as well, it has helped the development of the story!


	15. Chapter 12

**Error in the Code**

 **Chapter 12**

 **Clearing Group Headquarters**

The day had come for them to clear a mission, a mission that was left incomplete. The incentive being a safe zone, that could be utilized by the clearing group to further progress the game. A safe zone? Open for players? It's crazy, it has to be worth it, or is it?

There are a few obstacles that hands difficulty out to the clearing group and the rest of the player base and it was the enemies guarding it. That wasn't the only problem, they were moving in with little information, hindering their preparations for the operation. They're leaders are left to infer on the enemies that occupy their target, and plan thoroughly to avoid anything going downhill.

"What's the plan?" The Hunter inquired.

"I'll be handing you authority to plan the operation, you have the information we're gonna need for the operation." The vice commander replied. Soldiers were gathered within the headquarters, the different uniforms separated into many groups was like that of a rainbow.

"Never seen so much in one area." He muttered, glancing at the players around him. The last time there were a massive amount pooled in one area, was during Kayaba Akihiko's announcement in the plaza, where the game had officially begun. "How many players are gathered, here?" He thought out loud.

"Given the size of the safe zone, we gathered more than a hundred players just for this quest." The vice commander responded, after hearing him talk to himself. With a few minutes away from starting, the room was filled with idle chatter from the players present as a way to pass time until the conference started.

 _'Time to come up with something.'_

* * *

The clearing group slowly advanced forward with the Hunter at the front, taking vanguard. No beasts were in sight, and the aura of the city gave off an eerie feeling, as if something didn't feel quite right.

 _"Alright, everybody. Listen up!" The Hunter shouted, raising his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. About a 200 eyes turned to look at him, it would've been nerve-racking if he cared enough about the stares they were giving him. "I was given authority to plan the conference, so bare with me." He explained._

"You there, Hunter! Didn't you see the warning? Turn back at once, Old Yharnam, burned and abandoned by men, is now only home to beasts." A voice bellowed from afar, the Hunter turned to the source of the voice and recognized who it was.

"Where's that voice coming from..?" The vice commander wondered, her eyes going all over the place, in search of the source. He raised his hand to point at a tall, towering building, a small figure could be seen next to a bulky, metallic object at the top of the tower.

 _"A Hunter named Djura will be our target, he's the bad man. Like me, he's a Hunter. But it's not the beasts he'll be hunting… It's us." The Hunter stated, pouring out all the information he knew and shoving it into the other players' minds. "However, there's one thing I'm uncertain of. In my world, he's stationed on top of a tower, next to a mini gun." He continued, eyes widened and gasps were released as a response._

"They are of no harm to those above. Turn back, or the hunter will face the hunt." Djura warned. The mini gun was in view, deployed next to the target. "Shit… This is what I was worried about." He muttered, cursing under his breath. He turned to the voice commander, and exchanged glances before he spoke up.

"He has it."

 _"If this is proven true, I'll be the one to handle it, but that's not our only concern." The players looked slightly relieved knowing someone can address the issue, should it ever arise. However, the presence of fear still persisted within their minds. "Chances are, hostiles in the city may have firearms, themselves. Our best bet will be using shield wielders, they'll only fire one bullet at a time, so if you see one aiming for you or someone else, move in and block the shot." He advised, informing them of his tactic._

A beast dropped down on the ground in front of the Hunter and rushed in, extending its claws forward as it moved in. He pulled out his Reiterpallasch in response and swung the blade at the assailant, disposing of the threat in a single swing.

"A beast patient? Where are the others?" He wondered, glancing at the corpse in front of him. As if one cue, a door smashed open from behind, hunting dogs charged out and a group of huntsmen followed close by. But it didn't stop there, more hostiles descended on the group from above, catching them by surprise.

"Everyone, take up a defensive formation and cover every side! Stick to the plan, shields, block projectiles and neutralize any hostile with a firearm! For anyone who isn't using a shield, focus your efforts on neutralizing the other threats!" The Hunter commanded, shouting out what was in his mind.

A battle ensued in the area as they held out from the surprise attack. He wasn't expecting an ambush from the enemy, like this. Leaving him to question how it was executed, was it the AI? Or the system itself? It didn't matter now, they're gonna need to survive the ambush and launch a counter attack as soon as a window opened up in their favor.

He pulled the blade out of his adversary and pushed the corpse off to the side. The sound of a shattering object could be heard from the side. Noticing this, he turned to the source of the commotion and hoped it was an enemy succumbing to death, but his hopes were rendered meaningless as he realized it was the sound of a player's avatar being eliminated from the game.

"You're not getting away with that." He moved in and struck his sword at the target, followed-up by raising his pistol up at the target's head and pulling the trigger, marking the demise of his enemy.

"Help!" He heard a distress call coming from behind him, as he turned to respond, the situation could be made out as a hunting dog had pounced on the player and was in the process of elimination.

"Damn it." Cursing under his breath, he quickly swapped his weapon to the threaded cane and transformed it into a whip, aiming for range with the little time he had. Closing in, he swung the whip at the canine and knocked the filthy beast off the player.

"Get up, soldier." He ordered, he placed the player's arm over his shoulder and dragged him somewhere safe. The amount of HP the player had was on the edge and close to depleting.

"You there!" The Hunter called out, gesturing for the player to head over to his location.

"Get this guy off the field, we can't have him here any longer." He commanded, pointing to the injured person behind him. The player nodded and called another one of her party members to help her out.

 _'We're losing people, one by one. And we haven't even fought Djura, hostile Hunters haven't shown up either…'_ He thought, looking around at the battlefield. They stood a chance against enemies such as beasts, but against Hunters? It was a feeling of uncertainty lingering within his mind that disturbed him the most.

His thoughts were broken back to reality by the sound of a blunderbuss being shot from side of the battlefield. Realization hit him the moment he knew who fired that shot, bringing back the disturbing feeling at the back of his mind.

 _'Out of all times, you just had to come in now…'_

* * *

 _'Where did he come from?!'_ The black swordsman thought, questioning the sudden appearance of his adversary. The hostile Hunter raised it's sword up and brought it down, the swordsman responded by bringing his weapon up to block the incoming attack, locking swords with his opponent.

Suddenly, a bullet came flying in, hitting him in the arm and breaking his concentration on the first Hunter. Another one of allies came into view, a mechanical weapon attached from the side of his arm and a firearm on the other. The first Hunter took advantage of the distraction and pushed his sword out of their weapon lock. This caught the swordsman off guard, earning him a cut on his avatar's body.

 _'Damn it.'_ He stood on guard in front of the two hostiles with his sword up, but he knew his sword wouldn't be enough to defend him from both.

In a blink of an eye, both targets moved in, pulling consecutive swings in an alternate manner. The swordsman utilized his sword to deflect their attacks, but with each block he executed, he received a cut in return. The swordsman changed his course of action and dodged the next attack, an opening presented itself to his face. Without hesitation, he took it and swung his sword at the target, successfully wounding his adversary.

The second Hunter closed in, raising his weapon in the air and attempting to drive it into it's target. The swordsman deflected the attack and immediately performed a backhand swing at the assailant, wounding the second Hunter.

* * *

 _'Gotta move fast…'_ The Hunter thought, running through the battlefield and killing any beast in his way. He knew he had to take on any Hunters allied to Djura, if they weren't disposed of, the clearing group would have to deal with a major obstacle.

 _'There.'_ As he moved through, two hostile Hunters came into view. Both were clashing with a player he deemed familiar, a black cloak and a black sword, most of the coloring his clothing had usually had a dark color to it.

 _'So you joined in the fun, huh?'_ He thought, watching him launch a counterattack at his two opponents. _'Time to even this out.'_ With that, he rushed in on a Hunter and cut his arm with his Reiterpallasch, he followed up with a shot from his pistol, staggering the hostile backwards.

"Stake Driver, huh? Powder Keg Hunters." The friendly Hunter thought out loud. Like his past encounter, a confused expression dawned on Kirito's face, wondering what the hell he was talking about this time.

"A what?" He asked, confused.

"See that metal object attached to his arm? That's a weapon used by a certain group of Hunters who innovated their own weapons to fit their style." The friendly explained, pointing at the Stake Driver at the bad man's arm. The swordsman glanced at the equipment, studying the weapon with his eyes going all over the object.

"It's rude to stare you know, not to forget, if you stare too much, you won't notice him running towards you right now…" The good guy commented.

Kirito snapped out of his trance and suddenly raised his sword up to block an incoming blade, it would've worked if there was actually a weapon coming in for a hit. His facial expressions turning serious.

"You're kidding, right?" The Hunter asked in disbelief, watching the solo player look like a person seeing some dank shit in front of him that no one else could see.

"Wai- what? Huh?" The solo player wondered in confusion, fooled into thinking an enemy was actually about to smack him.

"So, not only are you socially awkward, but you're also a fucking klutz?" Ryuu inquired, looking at the "beater" in front of him. "How are you not dead?" He continued. He left no time for the swordsman to reply as he charged at the two Hunters with his rapier.

The good Hunter moved in and swung his rapier twice at the hostile, staining his weapon with blood, the hostile tried to launch a counterattack with an attempt to swing his Stake Driver. But the hostile's opponent left no room for that as he quickly transformed his weapon and fired a shot at the enemy, opening a visceral attack, without any hesitation, Ryuu performed the visceral and significantly injured his adversary.

The sword-wielding Hunter attempted to close in on Ryuu, but was interrupted by an outside force as Kirito moved in to intercept with his sword glowing and transcending into a unique type of light show. Both parties identified their respective opponents, they stood back-to-back, preparing to neutralize the threats.

"You ready for this?" The Hunter asked, raising his rapier up.

"Yeah." The swordsman deadpanned, his sword raised.

With that, both parties closed in on their enemies. Ryuu went charging in towards his enemy, the hostile thrusted its stake forward, he ducked and move past the weapon. The moment he was out of his opponent's range, he turned and raised both his weapons up, aiming at the Hunter and firing consecutive shots with each firearm.

After his barrage, he swapped his main weapon into the threaded cane and transformed it, slamming it at the hostile Hunter and sent him flying, marking the end of his duel.

He glanced over to his ally to see how he was holding up. When his ally came to view, he was deflecting the hostiles attacks and holding his ground. But he could tell he had a trick up his sleeve. The moment the hostile took another swing, Kirito leaned backward and dodged the blade, the moment it was out of his way, he closed the distanced, releasing a battlecry and slashed away at his opponent. With each attack he pulled, his opponents health bar dropped significantly until it hit a critical point.

Suddenly, a bullet whizzed past his head and hit the hostile, interrupting his counterattack. The swordsman was caught off guard and his head snapped to the direction the bullet came from.

"Kill steal!" The Hunter cheered, celebrating at the successful attempt at nicking off the kill.

Kirito sighed in annoyance to the revelation and shrugged it off, he sheathed his sword and approached the Hunter.

"I had it under control." He claimed.

"I know, right?" The Hunter replied, walking off. This caught Kirito off guard, a surprised expression dawned over his face as he watched the Hunter walk away.

"It's not over yet, there's still a war going on." Ryuu's tone turned serious as he turned to face the swordsman. "We need to move." Kirito nodded in agreement and set his destination for the battlefield with the Hunter doing the same, the battle for this city was far from over. Their main target was still alive, and there are still plenty of beasts to eliminate from the city.

Their fight was only beginning.

 **AN:**

Hey guys, sorry for the really long wait. I didn't mean to leave the story untouched for this long. Anyway, here's the new update, I hope you guys enjoy this one, I do get the feeling that his chapter wasn't exactly well done. But it's what I was thought of.

It's not the end of the battle just yet, there's still more to come.

I want to thank the people who reviewed, followed and favorited this story, it helps me out a lot and it's much appreciated. Thank you to the people who have left suggestions for the story, it will help in the development of this story. Once again, I am open to suggestions, so if you have any, go for it.


	16. Chapter 13

**Error in the Code**

 **Chapter 13**

 **Questline**

The closer they got to the field, the sounds of weapons clashing became louder as they advanced through the different areas of the city to eliminate the beasts that have overrun the area. The further they advanced, the closer they were to fighting Djura; the biggest threat that existed in their mission. Djura's skill was said to be comparable to a human invader in the game of Bloodborne, but they didn't have the luxury to be ogling at the rumors regarding his skill.

Another Hunter abruptly appeared during their duel with two of Djura's allies. The said Hunter had been taking down the players of the clearing group one by one, with each passing moment, the hostile would launch an assault on any player close to him.

"Damn it, just die!" One of the members of the clearing group shouted, who was currently engaged in a fight with the hostile. The man broke into a charge, running straight for the hostile Hunter with a battlecry of his own. But his charge was interrupted when the Hunter rolled forward and shot the player with his firearm, stunning the clearing group member. The assailant took the opportunity to land a visceral attack and quickly closed the distance between him and his victim.

"No!" The player cried out, realizing what was about to happen to him.

"Get back!" A voice called out. A green light began to glow from the side, and to the player's relief, the vice commander had come in to intervene, intercepting and interrupting the hostile's attempt to finish off the player. There, she stood defensively, in front of the player with a pissed look on her face, accompanied by her rapier. It was, by no mistake, it was the Flash, also known as the vice commander of the Knights of Blood.

"Get back, regroup with the other squads!" She ordered, keeping her eyes trained on the enemy and keeping a close watch on its every move. After moments of intense staring, she decided to make the first move by moving in at dank speed, clashing weapons with the hostile.

* * *

"What the hell pushed you far off from the group?!" The Hunter shouted, wondering how the hell he managed to get so far from the main group.

"I'm not sure, I guess it was the duel I had with the hostile Hunter!" The swordsman called out from behind.

"What the fuck, man…" Kirito recoiled slightly at his colorful language, but got over it quickly, it was to be expected from some people to begin with. "We're here, let's split up and help the main group out." Ryuu suggested, Kirito nodded in agreement and ran over to a group of people who were in the middle of fighting multiple threats.

"Kirito-san! Glad to have you with us!" One of the soldiers exclaimed. Ryuu turned the other way and began contributing to the fight, hacking and slashing away at beasts that tried to place a finger on him. _'Is there no end to this?'_ He thought, with the battle ongoing, it was almost as if the entire city was concentrated on their location. It was possible that they were attracted to this area with all the commotion they were causing.

His train of thoughts were interrupted when he noticed a huntsman pointing a rifle at him, just as he was about to brace for the bullet's impact, a person moved in and blocked the shot coming for him.

"Thanks, he would've hit me if you didn't move in." He said, thanking the player, crouching down behind him. He checked at the amount of quicksilver bullets he had, there was still plenty to last him for the battle. If he ran out, he could just sell his soul and gain five extra bullets. After checking his ammunition, the Hunter stood up and fired multiple shots at the gunman, resulting in its death.

"Where's the vice commander?" He asked the player, his voice containing a mix of curiosity and concern.

"I'm not sure, last time I saw her, she was over at that direction." The player replied, pointing his weapon at the direction the suspect was last seen.

"Got it, thanks." He stood back up from his crouching position and headed for the direction he was pointing at, maneuvering through obstacles in his path.

 _'Strange, how she disappeared just like that… Hopefully she's okay.'_

* * *

She didn't stray far from the main group when he found her, only some distance away. But to his horror, the vice commander was leaning against a wall for support with her HP bar within the red zone. Not far from her, was a body of a Hunter, lying dead on the ground. _'Did she try taking on a Hunter by herself?!'_ He thought, but he dismissed that and started running towards her.

"Asuna-san, the hell happened to you?!" The Hunter called out. The wounded girl looked up, and was relieved to see a person she recognized.

"Ryuu..? Is that you?" She asked, fatigue overtaking her voice.

"The hell were you doing?!" He demanded.

"I was trying to save someone…" She replied, weakly. Ryuu clicked his tongue in annoyance at her response.

"You don't have to put your life on the line to do that, but I'm not gonna worry about that right now. We need to get you out of here." He said, slightly scolding her for what she did. "Can you walk?" He asked, in the back of his mind, he knew it was a stupid question. When he found her, she was obviously leaning on a wall for support, but he only wanted to confirm her current condition.

"I… I'm not sure…" She replied.

"Right, that's all I need to hear, hang on." The Hunter freed his hands of the weapons he equipped and grabbed her, carrying her in a bridal style hold. It would've been awkward for him in a normal situation, but he was in a "Fuck it" mood, someone was close to dying and he didn't care about anything else at the moment. The girl in his arms drifted off to unconsciousness and left her head resting on his chest, he could've sworn he heard her mutter something, but that could wait.

 _'Asuna-san, you need to be careful with what you do. If you continue this, it could lead to unfavorable results.'_

* * *

"Kirito-san! Get her out of here!" The Hunter called out, the swordsman turned to the direction of the voice, and saw Ryuu carrying the vice commander in his arms. He also noticed the HP bar reduced all the way down to the red zone. The swordsman finished off his opponent and ran over to the Hunter.

"What happened to her?" He asked, surprised at the current condition of the vice commander.

"She took on a hostile Hunter by herself, and she's a step away from dying. Move her to a safe location as soon as possible." Ryuu ordered. Kirito nodded in agreement, and he transferred Asuna over to the swordsman.

"You four, escort Kirito out of here, while he moves Asuna to a safe area." He ordered, directing his command to a small squad of players.

"Understood!" The Hunter watched the group leave the area, making sure nothing would interfere with their mission. He turned back to the field, and noticed things were rather… Quiet.

"What's the situation, right now?" He asked, approaching a group of players leaning against a wall and poking their heads out of cover, as if scanning the area for any enemies. The player turned to see the Hunter walking towards them.

"We were able to fend off the wave of beasts, but we've sustained a number of casualties." The player replied.

"As soon as we finished fighting the wave of enemies, we tried to advance forward, but then gunfire rained down on us." A second player informed.

"Looks like he's decided to join the fight." The Hunter thought out loud. He turned to face the remaining soldiers in the area, their faces emulated their feelings. Feelings of fear, anxiety and distress.

"Alright, everyone, listen up!" The Hunter barked out, raising his voice for everyone to hear.

"Our target is up there, and he's waiting. You've all contributed to this mission, and that's enough, I'll take it from here." The remaining clearing group members were about to lose it as soon as they found out what the Hunter was about to do.

"Wait! You're not gonna take on the target alone, are you?!" One of the members called out. The Hunter turned to face the player with a stoic expression written all over his eyes.

"Got a problem with that?" He answered, causing the players to recoil back in surprise.

"You can't! At least wait for help to arrive, then we can continue with our main objective." The player replied, trying to stop the Hunter.

"Wait? I'm not gonna sit around and wait for help, only to have it end up increasing the number of casualties we've sustained in this mission." Ryuu replied, nearly shouting at the player. "All of you may be skilled, but our target is comparable to that of a human player. Not to forget, you're not from my world, you can't hope to take on Djura." The more he said, the more his ego started to rise, this didn't go unnoticed by the remaining members of the clearing group, but they didn't say anything either.

"Someone has to do it…" The Hunter stated, walking away from the people.

AN:

My updates have been inconsistent lately, this hasn't gone by unnoticed as well. But here's the new update, and I hope you guys do like it.

Been busy with school, had English readings to do, helped the people of the Theatre group with their play, as well as tests and homework that have been shoved to me. Just an update on my situation, so you know what's currently going on.

Note: Some of you may have noticed a different format for this chapter, and the last one. Reason for that is, I've been using the copy and paste option in the document manager for my updates, so things are different there. Also, the updates have been shortened, instead of the usual 2,000+ words, it's been lowered down to 1,500 and beyond. That's because I haven't been thinking of a lot to write for the next chapters, lack of time, and sometimes forgetting to work on the next chapter contributed to this, I apologize about that.


	17. Chapter 14

**Error in the Code**

 **Chapter 14**

 **Enemy Territory, Questline**

Bullets whizzed past the Hunter as he ran from cover to cover to avoid the rain of bullets coming his way. It would be a nasty experience if he were to get hit by a bullet now, a direct hit from one could screw him up, and get caught by any other trailing bullet.

"Goddamn volunteer work…" He muttered, crouching behind cover. Recovering stamina was something important in his game, but in SAO, they called it fatigue. A feeling of exhaustion that kicked in through the NerveGear's system that signaled excessive use of the avatar's body. He wasn't sure if there was any way their game would warn them of their draining stamina, but he didn't have the luxury to find out with his given situation.

Without wasting another second, the Hunter dashed out of cover and ran straight for the tower. Bullets followed close by, but not one grazed or hit it's target.

 _'Guess he doesn't know that you should aim in front of a moving target…'_ He thought, thanking the developers for the programming.

Only to regret doing so.

Just when he thought he was safe from any kind of danger coming his way, an explosion hit him from the side, catching him off guard, and sending him flying to the side. The Hunter quickly pulled himself back up, and turned to the source, assessing the threat.

 _'Weapon, Stake Driver. Charged attack, major penalty to stamina. Target's stamina: Recovering. Health: Recoverable.'_ He dashed towards his assailant, and released a series of attacks, taking advantage of the recovery system his game had to offer.

* * *

On the other side of area, the remaining clearing group members secured a perimeter, waiting for the Hunter to come back, and for help to arrive.

"I wonder if it was ok letting him go all by himself like that…" One of the soldiers thought out loud.

"I don't doubt him, but I'm worried as well, who knows if he'll come back or not." Another one responded.

"He _did_ let us stay back and recover…"

Their idle chatter was cut short by the sound of a soldier calling out to someone.

"Vice commander!" This turned the heads of everyone in the area, turning to see if she really was back.

"Where is he?!" Asuna demanded, technically shouting at the dude's face.

"W-who?" The guild member asked, confused.

"Ryuu, where did he go?!"

"He went that way, he told us to stay back since he said he was gonna finish the mission himself." The soldier replied, pointing the direction of a familiar looking tower, and filling her in on what she missed. She stared at the tower for a while, slowly realizing their main target was stationed at the top of that said tower.

"That idiot!" The vice commander shouted, she was close to losing it.

"Why didn't he bring anyone with him? He could die if he isn't careful!"

"He- he told us we've done our part in the mission, and that he'd take care of the rest. We tried to stop him, but he in insisted on finishing the mission." He explained, hoping he could stay out of the trouble he could possibly be in.

"I'm going up there!" Asuna shouted, pulling out her rapier, and started heading towards the tower.

"W-wait!" The player called out, but she was long gone before he could manage to try and stop her.

"Asuna!" Kirito called out, hoping to stop her, but only to end up with the same result. He started mobilizing as well, following Asuna's trail. In the back, Klein stood there speechless. He sighed in annoyance and decided to follow Kirito to make sure he didn't fuck up with what he was about to do.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna make sure they're ok." He called out, running towards the same direction.

* * *

Difficult. Difficult was the word he'd use to describe the fight. The Stake Driver along with the blunderbuss Djura had was a problem. Getting hit by a single bullet from the gun's cone of attack was enough to disrupt any of his attacks, and result in a window opened for a visceral attack. The area they fought in was another factor, one wrong move and he could fall to his doom. That wouldn't be very pleasant. Despite the difficulty, he wasn't in big trouble… Or not yet he wasn't.

 _'I shouldn't have too much trouble taking him dow-'_ Ryuu's thoughts were interrupted by a bullet making contact with his chest, sending him a few feet back as he staggered. Djura took the opportunity to move in, and attempt an assault on his assailant. The hostile attempted a slash with his driver stake, but was shortly interrupted by gunfire. Forcing him to drop, and stunning him for the sudden impact. The next event that occurred was an external force jamming itself into him, and forcing itself back out.

 _'Karma's a bitch.'_ Ryuu thought, successfully pulling a visceral attack on the target. He watched Djura pick himself up and ready himself for combat. Ryuu rushed in, slashing away with his Reiterpallasch. His attacks were rendered pointless when his target dodged, and dashed away with ease. He continued his assault, and dashed in in hopes of landing some blows on the target.

The moment he reached Djura, he was forcefully thrown back by his opponent's weapon, which had been charged and released on Ryuu. As he was sent careening backwards, his body collided with someone else, forcing both of them back. Both parties were sent rolling towards the edge of the area. Ryuu managed to stop himself from skidding off the edge, but the person he collided to was still rolling towards the edge.

 _'Shit.'_ He jumped for the edge of the arena, and managed to grab the person before they fell to their death. He got a clear view of the person he saved, and was taken aback by their appearance.

"Asuna-san!?" He exclaimed in shock. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"I could be asking you the same thing!" Asuna replied.

"This area is dangerous, you need to get out of here!" Ryuu shouted.

"So what? It's not dangerous for you just because you're from the same world they're from?!" Asuna shouted back. Realization struck him. She was right, he remembered the moment he shouted at the clearing group members. He let his ego get in the way, and now they were in a mess. Ryuu turned back to the target, Djura was slowly approaching them, as if he was on a stroll in the park.

"Asuna! Ryuu!" A voice called out. He turned to the source of the voice, and spotted Klein and Kirito. Both of them had just arrived to the scene.

"Keep him busy!" Ryuu instructed. Both of them nodded in understanding, and charged at Djura. He turned back to the person hanging from the edge, and mustered all of his strength to pull her up.

"You piss me off, sometimes." The Hunter remarked, pulling Asuna up. She only glared in response, but he wasn't surprised. Who the fuck would be? Ryuu turned to the duo fending off Djura while he pulled Asuna's ass off of danger, the pair fared well with their fight against Djura. It was to be expected, seeing it was a two on one situation, but then again, quantity is not always a deciding factor of a battle.

"I'm not leaving those two to fight off our target, if you're able, you can fight. But if you need to recover, no one will fault you for resting." Ryuu bluntly stated as he picked himself up, and charged at his target. He switched his weapon to a sword along the way.

"Tsk, what's taking them so long? We can't hold this one off forever, you know." Klein muttered. His recent assault ended with him being forced back along with his partner, Kirito, due to the offensive, and defensive tactics their target demonstrated. As if on cue, the answer to Klein's question appeared in the form of their ally Hunter moving in, and swinging his sword at the hostile, successfully landing the hit. Ryuu grabbed the massive stone slab attached to his back, and slammed it on the ground in front of him. Unfortunately, Djura dashed backwards, but that wasn't the only outcome that presented itself. Unlike the arena in his game, the floor beneath them was made of wood. With his hammer slammed into the wooden floor, a crack emanated from the source of pressure, and pervaded an area around him. The moment realization hit him was the moment they fell. The weight of the two opposing Hunters no doubt burdened the material to the point of getting rekt.

One moment, he was staring at the floor, the next, he was falling down the lower level of the tower. He didn't descend alone, he brought Djura down with him… Literally. Ryuu picked himself up to prepare for combat, but the moment he set his sights on what was in front of him, he only had a split second to react. Out of instinct, he quickly stepped back, the sudden command being sent to his legs caused him to stagger slightly. But the little mistakes made could lead to bigger outcomes. His attempt at regaining his balance was rendered pointless when a Stake Driver was rammed into his gut, throwing him back, and slamming him against the wall. Ryuu fell on one knee, trying to recover from the brutal hit of the weapon, and the collision from his surroundings. His opponent took the chance to go on the offensive, Djura moved in with his Stake extended for reach. Ryuu could hear him coming, he knew enough to know opponents will never let their adversaries recover.

The recovering Hunter suddenly shot his head up, and leaned to the side. The displacement of his movement caused the weapon to ram itself into the wall behind him. He jammed his sword into the hammer's sheathe, and swung in a wide arc. His attack proved successful, and knocked his target back. He looked up at the hole in the ceiling, and wondered where the trio went. He never heard them call his name out, he thought that perhaps he was too preoccupied to have noticed. Using the time he had given himself, he pulled out a blood vial, and injected it to his thigh causing his health to increase. He turned to Djura, who was picking himself up from his fall.

 _'Time to finish the mission.'_ He thought. Ryuu wasn't far from finish the fight, his enemy didn't have a lot of health left from all that happened.

 _'Forgive me.'_ He grimaced at the thought of having to kill an old, skilled Hunter. Djura would no doubt be an asset to the Hunters had he not renounced his vows to protect the "people," he still saw in the beasts. He raised his blunderbuss up in a mechanical fashion, and parried the incoming attack. Given the window, he finished the fight once and for all.

* * *

AN:

This is just a short update. I know it wasn't worth the really long wait for a thousand, and eight hundred word chapter, but I'm trying to get back to the hang of things. I'll be using this chapter for feedback, and see what you guys think of it's current direction. I apologize for the time gap.

I nearly forgot I wrote this fanfic.


	18. Chapter 15

**Error in the Code**

 **Chapter 15**

There's not a lot left to say about the operation, with the Hunter threats gone, they were left with the beasts that ravaged the city. He knew the players would be fine, unless they started picking a fight with something dangerous. Scourge beasts were one, their superficially slow movements can fool a person into lowering their guard. But no, this game will fool you, and slap you silly for it.

"What a pain in the ass." A certain Hunter muttered, popping a blood vial in front of a scourge beast. Each group, or party of players were assigned into different areas to quicken their operation. Ryuu's area was the last bit that needed some cleaning. He was dragging this werewolf-like thing into an enclosed area, hoping to corner it. To an outsider, it would look like he was the one cornering himself.

"You guys can come out now." The Hunter called out, his back was close to the wall at this point, and he didn't wanna be the one to die in this plan.

A group of players emerged from their hiding spots, and closed in on the beast, raining down their attacks on the unsuspecting victim. It wasn't long till the threat was dealt with. The vice commander was nice enough to give him a squad to lead, what a change. He was a little doubtful at first, knowing some people can end up being a numbskull in a group, and be that clueless person the people struggle with. But thank goodness he didn't have to deal with that, his squad knew what they were doing, they learned to git gud.

"Nice, you guys can head back. I'll do the rest from here." Ryuu said.

"You just wanna go solo, don't you?" One of the member replied.

"Probably." Ryuu said, deciding not to hide anything.

"You know she's not gonna like that, she put us in groups for a reason." Another one called out.

"Yeah, well, she'll probably expect me to do something like this. Why break tradition? Anyway, I think I can just send you guys back." The Hunter stated, unsure if it was actually permitted.

His squad just stared at him in confusion, unsure if they should leave, or stay with him. He couldn't make up his mind, and started going back and forth on the decision. After a few minutes of staring, he finally came to a decision.

"Ah, screw it. You guys can leave." He blurted out. He waited for his squad to leave, and checked around to see if anyone was watching him. When he decided the perimeter was clear, he opened up his inventory and equipped the weapon he got from defeating Djura.

"Hmm…"

 _A window appeared in front of him the moment he defeated Djura. Within the window was an item, apparently, a reward for completing the quest. The item caught him off guard, he didn't remember seeing a reward for defeating a certain target. Nevertheless, he accepted the reward, and pulled up his inventory to look for the item's name. What a surprise._

"The Blade of Mercy." Ryuu repeated, inspecting the weapon on his hand. A dagger made of siderite. The Hunter took a few swings with the weapon, trying out his reward from the quest. He took a few swings and basked in the effects the weapon had, seeing it in 3rd person was one thing, but experiencing it in 1st person is a whole new story.

"Dayum son, where'd you find this?" He asked himself, "Well, that's enough play time, better report back before they think I got shanked." He turned back, and started walking towards his point of origin. Living in a video game world was different, and to him it felt strange knowing his life depended on the pixels that formed his body. His real life features may not be portrayed in this separate game, but his life isn't gonna be left unaffected by it either.

 _'Fuck my life.'_

* * *

"Area on our side is clear, I double checked." Ryuu reported.

"You really like going solo, don't you?" The vice commander asked.

"What happens if I say no?" He replied, taking a seat on a chunk of rock.

"I can prove otherwise."

"Then yeah, I do." He casually replied. He didn't feel like dealing with anyone.

"You don't have to be a solo player, you know. You should rely on others." Asuna stated, crossing her arms.

"Last time I did that, you freaked out. I had to shake you off of it." He replied. "And what about that guy you've been ogling at? What the hell's his name..?" He added.

"Kirito, yeah, that guy. Why don't you go bother him? He's a solo player as well." He asked. Asuna turned a shade of red at Ryuu's choice of words. The word "ogle," wasn't a very good word to use. It just made things sound creepy.

"I don't 'ogle' at him! That makes it sound creepy." She replied defensively.

"So you don't deny the assumption that you like him?" Ryuu replied, smirking under the mask of his Hunter. Asuna didn't reply, she only let out an annoyed sigh and crossed her arms.

"Don't worry, I'm done pestering you, for now." The Hunter said, standing up.

"Where are you going?" Asuna asked as soon as she noticed him walk away.

"Back to my world." Ryuu replied, "There's not a lot to do in your game."

She watched the Hunter walk away and noticed he was approaching a small lamp. As soon as he reached the lamp, he kneeled down and tapped the lantern. Within moments, he was sent off.

* * *

"Alright, let's see what we can do." Ryuu muttered as he materialized into the Hunter's Dream. He approached the workshop to reinforce the weapon. He looked through his inventory and checked if he had enough materials to reinforce the blade.

"Hmm… I have enough to get it to +5…" The Hunter muttered."

"Should be good enough." Or at least he hoped it was. There wasn't a lot going on in the dream. Well, there wasn't a lot to do either. There were only two NPCs that occupied the area, as well as the bath messengers who sold items to the player.

"Got an old man whose wheelchair is a lie, and the doll every other player freaks out about." He could vaguely remember a post in the community wiki about players hyped up to see the doll with their own eyes, thanks to the VR function it had. He couldn't exactly say he was surprised. Ever since the doll appeared in the game, the word "waifu," had been introduced to the community and the game.

"Y'all mother fuckers need Jesus." He muttered. He was triggered.

With the thought in his mind, Ryuu decided to pay the doll a visit. He wanted to level up with the amount of echoes he had, "Maybe I should place some points into skill and bloodtinge…" He thought. His current goal was to obtain the Evelyn, a powerful pistol that required quite a bit of Bloodtinge for players who didn't really focus on the attribute.

After leveling, he moved over the one of the headstones and looked through the menu.

"Guess it's time to head back over." He muttered whilst selecting Aincrad."

* * *

"What do you mean they disappeared!?"

"Something grabbed them, but we couldn't see it."

Ryuu had just returned to the Knights of Blood headquarters, only to see players shouting at each other. It was amazing, really, he couldn't quite get a moment of peace with these people.

"Just the atmosphere I need." He muttered, "The hell's going on here?" The Hunter asked, interrupting their pleasant conversation. Asuna turned to the source of his voice. The moment she saw the Hunter, she turned back and ordered the other guild member to leave the room. As soon as the player left, she revealed the details.

"We had two players patrol around the outskirts of the city." Said the vice commander.

"Can we ever get by a single day without a problem?" The Hunter asked, slightly stressed out with the amount of problems they've been having. But the vice commander ignored him and continued discussing the details of the story.

"They found a small area of the city that was apparently abandoned. The NPCs didn't occupy the area for some reason." She continued. This piqued the interest of the Hunter. It was the first time he ever heard of this kind of a problem.

 _'They could've died if they were grabbed by something.'_ He thought.

"After they discovered the area, they contacted a few others of their findings. And when they arrive, they explored the area. It wasn't long till two out of the four players were grabbed by something they couldn't see." Asuna added.

"From what I hear, you can exchange map information in this game, correct?" Ryuu asked. She nodded in response, "Ok good, send me the location and I'll meet you there." He ordered. The vice commander nodded, and pulled out her menu.

 _'Gonna need some extra help, and I know who I'm gonna be contacting.'_ He thought. Ryuu pulled out his menu and sent a message to Kirito, the only player he knew who was capable, and could handle things solo.

 _Ey, Kirito_

 _Need your help with something, meet me at this area. We're gonna be checking out some strange shit that just happened. Asuna will fill you in on the details when you get there. Hopefully you read this when it's not too late._

"By the way, don't bring anyone with you. We don't want possible casualties over some goddamn scouting mission." He added, "And if we die… Hopefully the others can take care of them selves." The Hunter concluded.

"What did you just say?" Asuna asked in disbelief.

"Don't worry about it."

* * *

"So this is where they disappeared?" The Hunter said, to no one in particular. This area gave him a bit of nostalgia, a Gothic-Victorian setting with dim lighting. It was giving him the creeps.

"Think we'll survive?" He asked the player next to him. Kirito didn't look like he trusted this area. Ryuu assumed he felt the same way he did about this place. He didn't think it was surprising for two people to suddenly disappear in an area like this.

"…I'm not quite sure what you mean…" The swordsman replied.

"You're real confident, aren't you?" His companion really wasn't helping.

"Ryuu, Kirito." A voice called out from behind. He knew who it was just by the sound and the pitch of the voice.

"Glad you could make it." Ryuu greeted.

"You didn't tell me you invited someone else to come with us." Asuna remarked.

"We're gonna need other skilled people to help out, Kirito was the only person I knew who could take care of himself." The Hunter stated, "Besides, I don't think you'd complain over my choice." He added, winking at the vice commander. She turned a light shade of red after his remark.

"So, where were they when they were grabbed?" Ryuu started. Asuna cleared her throat and pointed at a certain direction, "Over there."

"Guess we should start there." He suggested.

Their patrol, or exploration was quiet, and slightly awkward. He wasn't affected that much because he stayed in front of the group. His two party members were both behind him, following him wherever he went. However, he was enjoying himself. He knew those two were getting a bit tense due to the awkward atmosphere between them. Watching people suffer was his favorite hobby.

"This is the area." Asuna said, breaking the silence. They halted their advance.

"Alright, search around. Try to find a clue to their whereabouts, if that's even possible. It will probably be difficult, anything chipped off an item shatters, so that's gonna be an issue."

"There were no reports of an attack, so the chances of finding an item that belongs to them isn't too small." Kirito commented.

"That's what I'm hoping on, we better get started."

* * *

It wasn't long till someone found something. Turns out something that was supposed to shatter, didn't actually shatter.

"So you found that, huh?" The Hunter asked.

"Yes, something like that is supposed to disappear, but this one hasn't" Asuna replied.

"Well, let's go inspect it." Ryuu suggested.

"I doubt it's one of your members, but there's only one way to find out." He remarked, walking towards the object.

They reached the object, and confirmed it wasn't one of theirs. It was an NPC that had been leaning on a tree, only problem was, the NPC wasn't alive. The group wasn't sure how it got there, and how long it had been there.

"Think it was still here during our fight with Djura?" Ryuu asked, kneeling in front of the body.

"By the looks of it, it probably was. The blood doesn't look fresh." Kirito deduced. Asuna only nodded in agreement.

"Well, guess it wouldn't be connected to our case. But I'll keep track of this for future referenc-" His statement was interrupted by a giant hand that reached down and grabbed the trio.

They struggled to free themselves from the sudden assault. The sudden intervention had caught them off guard.

"What is that!?" Asuna shouted, trying to squirm out of its hand. Ryuu didn't get a chance to reply due to the creature tightening it's grip and causing his vision to go dark. He couldn't see anything, but it wasn't long till he heard a voice speak.

 _"Curse the fiends, their children too. And their children, forever, true."_


	19. Chapter 16

**Error in the Code**

 **Chapter 16**

 **The Hunter's Nightmare**

Not long after his vision went dark he was greeted with sight as he materialized from thin air and dropped to the ground, followed by his two companions.

"Fucking hell." Ryuu grunted as he picked himself up. His two party members followed suit and looked around the area. They were in a room filled with pots and vases.

"Where are we..?" Asuna asked, looking around the room.

"I was hoping this wouldn't be the case, but we're in the Hunter's Nightmare." Ryuu replied, approaching the lamp in the room. His party members didn't look like they understood what he was saying and remained confused.

"This area is an add-on to the base game from where I am. It's only accessible if you have the key item for it." The Hunter explained, "Chances are, your men are most likely dead if they were grabbed by that thing." He added, referring to the Amygdala.

"I hear you guys use "teleport gates," correct? If there is one here, activate it. It's gonna be your only way out of here." He advised, hoping they would be able to get out of the Hunter's Nightmare.

His hopes unfortunately came true.

* * *

The teleport gate was surprisingly deployed within the abandoned section of the city within the cathedral ward. He expected the teleport gate to lead them somewhere unknown to them, fortunately it didn't. Through this discovery, the clearing group was able to move players to the Hunter's Nightmare should they ever need to. Hopefully they don't.

"Listen, this place is dangerous. There's a lot of scary things around here." Ryuu explained.

"Like what?" Asuna asked.

"The setting, the ambushes, the enemy designs…the damage they do…" He listed, trailing off on the last item and hinting a bit of sadness on the last part of the sentence. Making it look a bit comical. The vice commander only raised her eyebrow in response, doubting the Hunter.

"Okay…" She said with some doubt in her tone.

"Point is, try to avoid this area as much as possible. If we do need to clear the level, just leave it to me." The Hunter added.

Asuna sighed in annoyance at his attempts to stop her from clearing the Nightmare realm. He had been trying to convince her for the past ten minutes by listing out the worst possible scenarios that could occur if they tried to clear through the level.

"Fine, we'll try. I'm only doing this because you've helped me before, but chances are, we may need to clear out this level to get to the next." She replied.

"Okay, good. Yeah, no that's understandable. Just leave it to me." Ryuu said.

With that, Asuna left, leaving the Hunter by himself. He sighed in relief and decided to head for the Hunter's Nightmare to start his clearing operations. He was glad those ten minutes paid off. It was rather difficult for him to make her piss off, but it happened and he was content with that.

"God damn, that was stressful." He remarked, "Why's it take so much to convince some fucking ginger..? Guess it's why they say gingers don't have souls." He concluded whilst the teleport animation triggered.

It was only a few seconds later that he was transported to the Nightmare. The familiar room surrounded him, only it was a rather twisted version of the Cathedral Ward.

"Right, where do I star-" His words were cut off by a weapon colliding on his back. Fearing another hit, he rolled out of the way and dodged the next attack. The Hunter turned to face his opponent in an attempt to gather information on their gear, but his deed was shortly interrupted by another attack.

 _'Shit.'_ He dashed back and aimed his blunderbuss at the hostile's direction. He released a round of bullets, hoping to interrupt one of his opponent's attacks. Much to his luck, he parried the enemy. He moved in for the opportunity and shoved his fist into his opponent, shortly after he forcefully ripped his hand out resulting in a major blow on the enemy's health.

"There's more where that came from." Ryuu called out, watching his opponent get up.

"I didn't think the game wouldn't warn me of invaders." His opponent replied. The target's avatar was a woman, and most likely is a female in the real world. She wielded a Beasthunter Saif and a blunderbuss.

 _'If she managed to get herself in the Nightmare realm with a teleport gate in the Cathedral Ward, then she must have been dragged into the world as well,'_ He thought.

"I could say the same thing. Though, you don't seem to be glowing a light shade of red." Ryuu commented whilst searching for a red hue around the other Hunter.

"How do I know you're not hiding yours?" The other asked, suspicious of his actions.

"I don't remember acquiring the Untrue White Ring." Ryuu replied, almost sounding like a smartass.

"You getting smart with me?" She asked, raising her voice slightly.

"Puh-lease, as if I'd want to fight again. I have my own issues to deal with." His opponent stiffened. It was apparent his replies were ticking this woman off. To him, it was slightly entertaining knowing he was a rather sarcastic person at times.

"How about a ceasefire? We could be helping each other out instead of trying to murder the other." Ryuu offered, hoping to ease the other's rising anger.

"You think I'd trust you that easily? After what you just did?" She snapped.

"You blame me for doing that? I'm not the one who attacked first." He replied, rebutting her argument.

"Anyone who sees another Hunter could perceive them as an enemy or an invader." She argued back.

"You have a point there, but did the game tell you you were invaded? Not all invaders would kill you on sight either." He shot back, "Courtesy is a thing in this game, surprising, I know." He added.

"If you're gonna be so difficult to reason with, you might as well let your weapons do the talking." She replied, challenging him.

 _'Oh boy, here we go.'_

"Well, you can't say I didn't try." His hopes of having a peace treaty with this player was immediately shot down like Klein introducing himself to a gril.

Their duel started with his opponent making the first move. She dashed in followed by an uppercut with the weapon. Thanks to his luck, his brain managed to react and dodged just in time to avoid the blade.

 _'R1 spammer.'_

Her flurry of attacks continued, this was advantageous to him in a way. With his opponents aggressive attacks, a visceral opportunity presents itself to the opposing party which could make quick work of the duel. He took the opportunity once more to inflict massive damage and fired his blunderbuss. The round of bullets were able to connect itself and interrupted the other player's attacks, opening a chance to slap his opponent silly.

He dashed in and performed a critical hit once more, wiping that health bar the way someone would wipe their ass.

"That's the second time I've performed a visceral on you, do you ever learn?" He asked in an attempt to provoke her rage. Her grip on the saif tightened, he could tell she was close to releasing that anger. Knowing he successfully triggered her, he let out an audible smirk and observed what she was gonna do.

What she did next made him reflect on his actions and regret what he said.

She swapped her blunderbuss with a massive object that resembled a tube. Only, this "tube," isn't something harmless. This tube was a cannon.

"Holy shi-"

Famous last words.

* * *

AN:

Short update.


	20. Chapter 17

**Error in the Code**

 **Chapter 17**

 **Hunter's Nightmare**

"Wait, we can talk about thi-"

A duel between players was one thing, but pulling out a cannon in the middle of it was another. The only reaction he was able to produce were his widened eyes. They were as big as dinner plates before a cannonball forced itself out of the cannon and hit his health bar where it hurt.

The aftermath of the sudden bombardment left smoke to take over the area Ryuu once covered. This left him at a slight advantage. With his avatar concealed, he decided to consume a blue elixir to further reduce his character's visibility. He quickly swapped to the Blade of Mercy and ran straight into his enemy whilst using the smoke to cover his movement.

With the blade barely upgraded, he relied on the low damage output to temporary set his opponent up. His plan was to land a visceral on the target and knock her out before she could get up.

 _'Right, hopefully I don't screw this up.'_

The cloud of smoke split as he reached the end of the cloud. Without cover, he knew his character could easily be spotted. It's hard to miss something running straight at you with increased visibility. He split the curved sword and performed a twirl whilst syncing the movement of his daggers to perform a spinning attack.

It wasn't long till he saw blood draw from his enemy, indicating a successful start.

 _'Git gud.'_

He followed up the start by releasing a barrage of attacks. These moves indicated a release in his inner R1 spammer.

 _'Transition now.'_

Following the voice in his head, he performed a transition attack, transforming the daggers into a curved sword. Registering the sudden halt to his attacks, his opponent attempted to land a hit on him with a familiar dash forward. Knowing what was coming, he let his instincts kick in and fired his blunderbuss in an attempt to stagger the target; the shot connected and forced his opponent down.

 _'Gotta move in.'_ He didn't waste any time and dashed forward. Plunging his fist into his opponent and ripping it back out, leaving his target on the ground. He walked towards her and flipped his handle on the blunderbuss. The Hunter then rammed the other end of his firearm into her head, causing the other Hunter to black out.

After seeing his plan go well, he let himself collapse on the ground and took a seat. He was panting from the amount of movement and effort he put into the plan.

"I probably shouldn't do something like that ever again…" He was thankful this person was somewhat a noob. Had she dashed back and opened fire, he would've been in some deep doo-doo.

"Whew! Okay, time to get you somewhere safe." He said to no one in particular. He grabbed the body and threw her over his shoulder. With another person on him, his only option was to go through the teleport gate. The Hunter turned to face the weapons littered on the floor, wondering what he'd do.

 _'Screw it, I'll get them later.'_ He thought. Deciding he was too lazy to do two trips.

* * *

He arrived at the clearing group's headquarters and pushed the door open, causing a ruckus as he entered the building.

"Got a spare room?" He asked. The vice commander turned around to face the Hunter, wondering what he was doing with the amount of noise he made.

"What do you need it fo-" Her sentence was cut off when she saw him dragging an unconscious player by their foot, and the player looked similar to him.

"Uh… Long story, and it's rude to stare you know." He replied, noticing her eyes widened in surprise, "I'll go look for a room…" The Hunter added, dragging the other away.

"Funny how you always hang around the HQ. It's like some writer couldn't think of something for you to do." Ryuu commented as he disappeared around the corner that led to the prison cells. Asuna was left dumbfounded with a confused look on her face, unwitting of what he meant.

"Huh..?"

Thanks to the rather low crime rate in this area, there weren't a lot of cells that were occupied, that left a lot of cells available for him to choose.

"Right, let's take this one." The Hunter turned to the room on the right and looked around the cell, checking out it's interior, "Good enough," He muttered. The bored Hunter carried the captive and placed her on the bed and began searching for some rope, hoping to tie the other Hunter to prohibit any method of resistance or escape.

The sound of footsteps echoed behind him, but he didn't need to look back to know who it is. There was only one person in the building who would follow him into the cell.

"Ryuu, what are you doing?" Asuna asked, watching him tie the unconscious player to the bed.

"Don't worry about it," He assured as he tied his fellow Hunter's leg to one of the corners of the bed, "And it's not what you think," he added, noticing the aura of suspicion behind him. But the vice commander only remained cautious. As soon as he finished tying his supposed-to-be ally to the bed, he looked around. Noticing this, Asuna spoke first.

"What are you looking for?" She asked.

"You'll see, I'm gonna need it when she wakes up. Add some fear factors to this interrogation." He stated.

"She? Is this player another one of your kind?" Asuna asked.

"Yup. You didn't know this thing was a female? She has a ches- actually, you'll figure it out." He replied, cutting off the last part. The last thing he needed was some gril thinking he was out looking at some hills, and he wasn't referring to the terrain.

"We just need to wait for this person to wake up, but while we're waiting, I'll fill you in on what happened." Ryuu said, taking a seat and turning to face the vice commander.

* * *

AN:

Another short update, had a bit of fun doing this one. Thank you for those who reviewed.

I can't help but realize I reached over a hundred follows and a hundred favorites. Thank you guys so much, I didn't think I'd reach that far in terms of support.

Probably cause I was dicking around in some chapters…

-AWTTH


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